Review: Frente at Badlands Bar

Frente at Badlands Bar
w/ Lo
Saturday, June 10, 2023

Frente occupy a unique space in the Australian music landscape. They were darlings of the alternative scene in the early 90s. An arty Melbourne band with alt-pop songs that had a jazzy edge, their raw sound with a stripped back, acoustic busker’s simplicity, provided backing for the remarkable, angelic voice of Angie Hart. Their classic 1992 debut Marvin the Album was a big hit, featuring singles Ordinary Angels, Labour of Love, and the much-maligned Accidentally Kelly Street. 

The band broke up quietly in 1996 following a big US tour in support of their underrated second album Shape, which failed to live up to the hype of the debut. While the core songwriting duo of the group, guitarist Simon Austin and singer Angie Hart, continued to work on other things musically – nothing ever matched up to the Frente years. 

Looking back on it now, the band had a lasting impact on Australian music. Frente represented a more positive, fun, carefree and relatable sound as an alternative to the heavy grunge sound exploding out of the US. They captured the sweet innocence of youth in the 90s, happy laidback vibes, as well as love and heartbreak and paved the way for more quirky pop acts to come, who might have thought themselves too left field.  

Their sound was simple and varied, though they were all talented musicians – the original rhythm section adding some jazz flair. Even the name Frente (which is Spanish for forehead or front) seemed a perfect, wilfully obscure, odd name for the band. As was Marvin The Album, a kinda dorky joke when they decided to give the album a name – one that was “unique and slightly uncool; like us” Hart once said. 

In 2014 they reformed briefly and played a show at The Astor, celebrating the 21st anniversary of Marvin. That civilised, seated affair seemed to be a special one-off nostalgic trip. Somehow now it’s nine years later and they’re back, touring Marvin’s 30th birthday! 

It was the last show of their national tour, and a warm and adoring crowd welcomed them in from the cold, into the comfy cavern that is Badlands. “It’s like a big hug in here” said Angie at one point. With its concourse wrapping around the stage, the sprawling multi-tiered venue with its kitschy décor was comfortably packed. Fans sang along to 30-year-old songs they still knew all the words to, and were excited to hear Simon and Angie are working on new music! 

Lo scored the support slot and it was a great opportunity for her to perform to a really big, receptive audience. Some fans would know Lo as Lauren O’Hara, of local indie rockers FLOSSY. Her solo side project features her wonderfully emotive voice paired with expansive, soaring songs with sweet pop hooks. 

Lo creates lush harmonies with a layered vocal effect, singing forlornly over her gently strummed Maton acoustic. Away is a gorgeous song with a palpable sense of yearning. She’s slowly building quite a back catalogue, when you’ve got songs like Floating and Fiction in your repertoire, you’re doing alright. One of our greatest rising local talents, Lo continues to impress. 

After a short break, Frente took the stage around 9.30pm and were greeted with much applause. What was immediately noticeable was that there were no bass and drums – Simon and Angie were joined only by Sophie Koh on keyboards and backing vocals. Kicking off with Girl, the first track on Marvin, Hart’s unmistakable voice immediately captured the room – as pristine, warm and striking as ever, as she sang with just piano backing. There’s something so sweet about the way she carefully phrases words like “Too wild and cool, vul-ner-a-ble.” A very soft, delicate song, the crowd was respectfully quiet and you could hear a pin drop, until the last note when there was rapturous applause. 

Not beating around the bush, Austin announced, “So we’re gonna play Marvin from start to finish." And that’s what they proceeded to do, with most of people hanging on every note they knew intimately. While these album anniversary tours have become quite common – bands often don’t play the entire album, or mix up the order a bit – so it was nice to see them just come out and play the whole thing in the original order.  

Up next of course, was their big hit Accidentally Kelly Street. Something of a double-edged sword, it was a harmless, catchy, cute pop song that was in the charts for weeks, but it also had some backlash for its saccharine twee-ness, and it’s absurd, colourful video that was like Play School on acid, culminating in the infamous Late Show parody of the video, which saw the track become a bit of a joke. But on Saturday night, with the stripped back three-piece arrangement, the innocent joy of the original song shone through and it sounded like a warm hug from an old friend, with smiling happy people all around singing along. 

Angie seemed delighted and surprised after each song, smiling at the applause and cheers, grateful to get to perform these honest songs again and have them received with so much love. She still radiates pure rosy-cheeked joy, eyes sparkling and her pitch-perfect voice hasn't aged at all. “She's pretty loveable” admitted Simon. 

No Time is another one of those great songs – written by original bass player Tim O’Connor. Their music seems to conjure an eternally youthful vibe, even though, like a lot of their crowd, they are around the 50 mark.  

Introducing the epic Cuscatalan, Simon said, “This is a song I wrote when I was 21 travelling in Central America as a very serious young person.” The themes of repression and revolution showed a more political side to the band. He showcased some pretty impressive Latin influenced fingerpicking guitar work, with an awesome lead solo at the end – as well as sharing vocals with Hart on this duet. 

Pretty Friend is one of their most underrated and incredibly beautiful songs, while 1.9.0. written by original drummer Mark Picton, was always a bit of a mysterious musical oddity. See / Believe is a real jazzy little number, which Austin said was an early track they wrote after they met at the Punters Club in Melbourne, and is about “being young and dumb and saying young and dumb things.” His precise lead twiddling on his Fender electric was impressive, swapping between that and an acoustic all night. 

As just a three-piece they sounded so good live. Sophie Koh was amazing on keys and backing vocals, really helping to fill out the sound of the songs – as well as performing an awesome melodica solo, that replaced the recorder solo on the timeless beauty of Labour of Love. 

Ordinary Angels was a bit of a highlight and remains one of their greatest songs – though it was one that may have suffered from the lack of a rhythm section – before they finished Marvin the Album with the rollicking Dangerous. 

The good thing about their songs is they’re all two or three minutes long, so despite playing the full album, there were still many more songs to come! In fact we were only about half way through the generous set. They filled it out with some of their early EP tracks, as well as several songs from 96’s Shape. They played Lonely, explaining that the song contains three elements – a bit of Frente, a bit of Public Enemy and some Barry White – with the refrain “Can’t get enough of your love baby.” 

Of course a highlight was their beautifully sparse cover of New Order’s Bizarre Love Triangle, that once again highlighted the stunning beauty of Angie’s voice. Horrible featured some amazing overlapping, looping vocals, and Austin introduced Air as his favourite Frente song. Another cool inclusion was Testimony – the first song they wrote together, released on their first EP Whirled in 1992. 

A couple great latter tracks from Shape followed – first Burning Land, as well as the Beatles-esque epic Sit On My Hands – a late career highlight that has aged well. And Angie gave away a couple of books by Perth author Briony Stewart, who made a charming children’s book out of Accidentally Kelly Street.  

“I’m gonna call it and say this is the gig of the tour!” exclaimed Simon, before he introduced the ‘last song’ Paper, Bullets and Walls. Sure enough, after leaving stage, they soon returned. “This had been a really special night. It was really weird a couple months ago, but now it’s really great,” said Angie. 

They finished off the night with a short and sweet encore – a cover of Sinatra’s Somethin’ Stupid, before taking us home with Goodbye Good Guy, which Austin said was the last song they wrote before they couldn’t do it anymore. “But now” he said, “we’re writing more songs!” An announcement that got huge cheers! 

It will be interesting to see what’s next for Frente. They seem reinvigorated and enjoying themselves, hanging around to chat with fans and sign things. It’s so great to see so much love for this uniquely Australian band. Whoever thought life could be so sweet. 

ALFRED GORMAN 

Photos by Linda Dunjey