Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever @ Freo.Social
w/ Floodlights, Adrian Dzvuke
Friday, October 14, 2022
It’s been a long wait since Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (RBCF) first announced their tour a couple years ago. After being postponed three times, they finally made it, and reminded us that they’re still one of the best damn live bands in the country, tearing through a thrilling set of songs from their now ample back catalogue.
A few years ago RBCF were doing well. After a couple great EPs and their superb debut Hope Downs, released on legendary Seattle label Sub Pop (who launched Nirvana and grunge on the world in the 90s), the Melbourne band were on a steady ascent, relentlessly touring the world and becoming a regular festival fixture. Renowned for their energetic live sets featuring the intricate harmonic interplay and driving rhythms of the three singer-songwriter-guitarists, bass and drums.
They were originally planning to tour their sophomore album, Sideways To New Italy, recorded and released mid 2020 just as the pandemic was taking hold. Since then, they recorded another album, written in a more isolated and individual way. Endless Rooms was released in May, and it’s their best, most complete work to date. So we ended up getting a double new album tour!
They brought their Melbourne mates Floodlights along for the ride too. But it was up to our own local legend Adrian Dzvuke (pronounced Zu-Kay) to get the night started on the right foot, and he did a great job. Unfortunately with the early start time, not too many people caught the start of his set, but by the end, the room was filling up with people grooving away.
With a natural stage presence and charisma, the afro-pop, hip-hop, R&B, neo-soul sound that he pumps out may have seemed at odds with the two indie guitar bands on the bill, but Dzvuke and his band are perfect party starters. Just a really tight unit, who have fun, put on a good show and really bring the energy.
Singing, rapping and dancing behind the mic, Dzvuke’s style is reminiscent of Childish Gambino, all smooth and funky beats. Fiyah is a standout track, which features Julia Stone, but tonight Adrian got the crowd’s help to sing along with the chorus.
Floodlights took the stage next, and have that very cool Melbourne indie rock sound, with jangly, distorted guitars, overset by Louis Parsons’ deep, impassioned vocals. A style much aligned with their contemporaries such as City Calm Down, Something For Kate and indeed RBCF. They quickly captured the room’s attention with their solid sound.
As a counterpoint, some tracks also feature the softer sound of Ashlee Kehoe’s voice and guitar, as well as her harmonica, giving it a classic Aussie rock sound something akin to Hunters & Collectors.
Tracks like Nullarbor from their 2019 Backyard EP and Matter of Time from their 2020 LP have a certain sense of urgency and energy to them, while their latest single Human sounds more full and accomplished. A great band with real potential.
While Floodlights were great and would have gained more fans that night for sure, everyone was waiting for the long-awaited return of Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. And from the moment they burst onto stage and launched into An Air Conditioned Man (the opening track from Hope Downs) everything went up a level.
The live sound and energy they bring to the stage is incredible with brilliant guitar work. RBCF are truly one of those bands that sound even better live than on record. You can tell they’ve been playing together for a long time, as the band are incredibly tight, and they seem to be having such a great time playing themselves, putting their whole bodies into it, with a real group jam vibe and infectious enthusiasm.
And the songs… so many great songs. They really know how to pen a tune, layering and arranging guitars and vocals. With two new albums now under their belt, they have quite the repertoire to draw upon, mixing in some of their finest early material as well, to build an impressive setlist.
The laidback vibes of Melbourne anthem Cappuccino City sounded great. Mainland was amazing with an extended jam at the end – all three guitarists and bass player so in sync as they shake, bop and groove around on stage together as one, facing each other as much as the crowd and really rocking out. With their jangly, melodic indie guitar sound front and centre, at times they’re reminiscent of Real Estate, but they’re more quintessentially Australian. Drawing more upon the classic sound of The Go-Betweens, The Saints, The Triffids, a more rockin’ upbeat version of The Church, and even Perth legends The Panics.
With three singer-songwriter-guitarists in the band, you’d think they might sound disjointed and messy at times, or have vastly different sounds. But they’re all great players who balance and complement each other so well, with their own unique style. Sometimes singing alone, sometimes in twos, or sometimes all three.
Fran Keaney takes centre stage, singing a fair portion of songs with grit and passion, strumming an acoustic and is perhaps the main spokesman, if any. But they all have standout songs – Tom Russo stands to the right strumming his Gretsch, with a more sombre voice, adding spoken word parts, lyrical, poetic imagery of Australiana; while Joe White’s more straight up rocking voice follows his electric guitar, and he’s liable to let rip at any moment with a searing searing solo or lead riff, or occasional keyboard notes.
The unsung hero of the group though is Tom’s brother Joe Russo on the bass guitar, who just doesn’t stop thumping out the rhythm. His driving basslines underpin the songs, as he lurched around, shaking his hips, in the zone, almost colliding with other members on the small stage, often with his back to the crowd, facing the drums, locked into the beat pounded out by Marcel Tussie.
Another great new song that really saw the band come together in unison was Bounce Off The Bottom, the closing track off the new album. The beautiful, slow building instrumental outro sounded magnificent.
“Some of you bought tickets for us when it was the album tour for Sideways To New Italy. It’s been a while… Since then we’ve released another album… So we’ll play plenty of both!” Keaney stated. “But this ones from Sideways… It’s called Cars In Space.” And they launched into the big single from their sophomore release; one of the best songs from it, along with the even better Cameo, which received a rousing rendition a bit later.
Though gladly they focussed more on Endless Rooms, playing most of the new record. The Way it Shatters was another standout with Keaney and White belting it out together “In my head, I tell myself, it’s all just a necessary evil!” White really shone on Hope Downs big single Talking Straight, then shared vocals with Keaney again on a couple new album highlights – the romantic Blue Eye Lake with its beautiful chorus “Open up your eyes and I will dive in” and the slower Dive Deep, which was a nice change of pace, featuring another great, soaring riff from White – though it could have been a bit louder and more prominent in the mix, like on the record.
A welcome surprise was their great older track Fountain Of Good Fortune from The French Press EP that sees all three vocalists belting it out together, and they finished the set on a massive high with the title track itself, French Press – still one of their greatest moments, and one that saw Tom Russo shine on vocals with his abstract lyrical genius and double meaning/use of “French Press.”
It was an incredible career retrospective setlist, but they came back for one more, thanking the crowd genuinely for a great night and announcing “I think we got time for one more… This is one of the first songs we ever wrote. It’s about falling over and getting back up, then falling over and getting back up again.” It was early gem Clean Slate from their 2015 Talk Tight EP and a great note to end on as they gave it a rollicking finale treatment with an extended instrumental.
Rolling Blackouts CF are back and in fine form, with a swag of new tunes and playing with a renewed vigour. Hopefully it wont be so long before their next visit. Do not miss them if you get the chance.
ALFRED GORMAN
Photos by Linda Dunjey and Six Strings Photography
