Guest report: Independence Day supergroup at Sharky - 4 July 2010

There was disappointment all around last week when the news filtered through that the Curtis King Band would not be able to make their annual trek across from Vietnam to play for Sharky’s 4th of July party. This annual gig normally attracts a packed house that is thoroughly entertained by some great exponents of Americana music. Customarily it includes the famous Curtis and his band of core professional musicians, together with a long line of guests that is capped by the cavorting, writhing, and pasty form of the irrepressible Lee Roi Jones - whose dance across the bar resembles something akin to an albino python looking for love.

So when the news came that they would not be here, a great lull descended across the spectrum of the Sharky patronage.

Little did the patrons know they were about to be introduced to something new and special……. . This night will go down as yet another great step forward for the local, live music scene.

On stage was Chris (Mispent Yooth – guitar, vocals), Kenny (Lost Highway – guitar, vocals), Tommy (Lost Highway, drums, vocals), and Dave (Mispent Yooth – bass, vocals) and coming out from the stage was the epitome of great American music from the 60s and 70s. Kenny and Chris’s interpretation of the great American rock & roll guitar compositions from this period was a total pleasure for all patrons. Their trade in riffs and leads complemented each other like a track complements a train, like a great singer complements a great song. You could feel the years of passion these accomplished musicians had been through – the years of love and practice they had put into the songs.

Tommy’s rock & roll drumming brought the songs up to crescendos of impunity and back to a subtle nuanced satisfaction. Dave on bass bounced between jazz/blues-style bass riffs that carried the songs seamlessly from country dance to rock & roll fervour to classic blues. The gig was also punctuated with Ian from the Lazy Jazz Drunks punching out a totally professional vocals job and Ken (The Hellhounds) getting up on harmonica.

All in all it was a great night that meant the patrons had all but forgotten their feelings of misfortune in the days before.