Pinky Beecroft rocks Brunswick again
Update 1August 2008: Pinky has posted a detailed response to my review on the PB Rectangle, and I have replied to his response. I think we’re still friends?!? I’ve also made some corrections to the text below based on information Pinky provided.
The Pinky Beecroft and the White Russians gig at the Brunswick Hotel last Friday night was great but quite strange. The crowd was young, feral and very different to the June gig at the East Brunswick Club, where the audience was older, cleaner and seemingly more informed about the band on stage. At the EBC they were there to see Pinky and the band and to enjoy the new songs, his reworked MGF songs (’Unsent letter’ and ‘Just Bcoz’) and the Blondie cover ‘Call me’.
In contrast, the audience at the Brunswick was younger and more feral and at least half of them seemed to have no idea who Pinky was; they were not there to see him, they were just at their local on a Friday night and were seemingly happy to pay the ridiculous $6 cover charge regardless of who was playing (the EBC gig was $12 and I think that was too cheap). Perhaps the gig was organised at short notice and other appropriate venues were already booked. Pinky says he deliberately chose different venues in July from those in June to ensure a more intimate and positive experience for the fans and the band.
While it was a fun and intimate night (the Brunswick is much smaller than the EBC, and has no backstage area) with lots of dancing and audience interaction down the front I don’t know that it did much to promote Pinky and his music to his fans. I suspect many did not know the gig was on, as It was my impression that there were less people there than at the EBC last month, but Pinky informs me that there were actually more people at the Brunswick than at the EBC. The ferals and regulars loved the somewhat dodgy cover of Duran Duran’s ‘Girls on film’ and a repeat of ‘Call me’, and got a faster, more energetic show than last month, but the fans missed out on more of the slow songs (which I think are the best ones).
They opened with ‘Real good time’ again and we heard the single ‘Someone for everyone’, some forthcoming album tracks including ‘Sunflowers’, ‘Floor’ and ‘My Haircut Will Come Back Around’ and ‘Unsent letter’ and ‘Just bcoz’ again, as well as ‘The new Miss Sweden’ (from the EP). Unfortunately I was hanging out to hear ‘Fabulous driving’ and ‘Got control’ from the EP and got neither.
I don’t think the show sold out The venue was close to capacity based on its liquor licence though to me it did not seem that packed (I was expecting a bigger crowd and surprised to find no facilities to accomodate this the venue was hopeless - there were no advance ticket sales online and no clue when I rang them about presales). It seems the marketing has some way to go to do justice to what is a good band with a strong groove who play very well together and who have some fantastic songs to perform. Nick was really rocking, perhaps helped by his Ferrari tshirt!
They’re coming back to Melbourne again in September and I hope this show will have more of a balance of slow and fast songs. The album is out on August 23 so I will know all the songs well before I see him again. On the Pinky Beefroft Rectangle (Pinky’s Ning driven blog and fan club social network) Meegs says he played too many ballads in Sydney the night before the Melbourne gig. I think he played too few ballads in Melbourne. The fans are difficult to please!
The stage banter was good value again. Below is one of the ten videos I made of banter and songs - this is the start of the gig when Pinky says hello and comments on his professionalism. For the rest, see my channel on Youtube or the PB Rectangle video page.
Posts you may find relevant and interesting
- The White Russians at Roxanne Parlour, 24 September 2008
- Pinky Beecroft and The White Russians, 13 June 2008
- JAMC: you take me back to nothing, 4 April 2008
- Low: dragonfly pills, 8 June 2006
- Lucksmiths reloaded, 7 May 2007
