Saturday, July 07, 2007

Wagons - LIVE

A few months ago in our post about decent local live acts we posted about Wagons, a country-rock sextet who I saw perform at Festa El Cheapo back in March at the Retreat. Recently, I have had the pleasure of seeing Wagons again and, for me, they have a live show which is one of the most entertaining from a local act at the moment.

The centrepiece of the band is a podgy, dishevelled, bespectacled character who goes by the name of Henry Wagons - lead singer and acoustic guitarist. Even if their music wasn’t very good it would be worth the price of entry just to see him perform. Part of the humour is ironical, funny because we’re seeing a educated slightly slobbish Melbournian singing trad country tunes. There is also an ironical chuckle from Henry’s serenading of an audience member during one of the group’s power ballads, and from the band’s experimentation with more ‘modern’ musical genres. The rest of the laughs comes from Henry’s banter. He has a dry self deprecating sardonic tongue and no-one is off limit - including the audience. But it's all in good fun, and he comes across as a witty, intelligent and likeable guy. His bandmates seem to appreciate him too even if they're also sometimes the butt of his jokes.

But this is not a band purely for comic relief – they also write some super tunes. The lyrics are poetic, and come from a dark place on the frontier where outlaws rule, death must be avenged, and souls are sold to the devil. Then there are the songs. There are no flat spots, but my favourites at this stage are toe tappin’ numbers such as High Rollin’ and an ode to country music legend Willie Nelson (a Wayfearing Strangers cover) where Henry rocks back and forth in a stomp fervently strumming his acoustic guitar. The band barely miss a beat too. The guitar solos from Richard Blaze soar. The washboard solos from Mark Dawson and Cy ‘The Philanthropist’ crackle. The falsetto backing harmonies from the Hassett brothers are pitch perfect and Henry’s crooning baritone is magnificent. You won’t be disappointed with this band.

Wagons are playing tonight at Hells Kitchen.

They have released two albums, 2002’s Trying To Get Home (Chapter) and 2004’s Draw Blood (Spunk). Both appear to be out of stock. Their next album will be released mid-August. Expect a range of shows from Wagons around this time.

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