Eddy Current Suppression Ring
The Prince Bandroom, St. Kilda VIC
Thursday 21st August 2009

To spur the kind of demand that Eddy Current Suppression Ring have cultivated over the past two years is nothing short of phenomenal. Selling out shows is commonplace for the Frankston four-piece - tonight is a sound reflection as to why.

Tonight is the first of a two night string, with Friday's performance selling out in usual Eddy Current fashion. The venue is threatening capacity as a wide cross section of music goers pour into the Prince. Support band The Exotics are solid, offering their rockabilly take on a 50's sound, with sprinkles of a Bad Seeds influence. The music is tight and the band excels at preparing the Prince for the main course.

There is no pretense with Eddy Current. Mikey, Brad and Danny check and tune their gear as they make gestures to familiar faces in the crowd. Brendan hovers side of stage before creeping on and into his neurotic persona, pacing back and fourth to the beat. The crowd is instantly in his back pocket as the charismatic, edgy frontman marshals his troops. A definite Australian sound pours through their simplistic structures, and while threads of bands past curl around the edges like wraiths from a time long gone, at it's forefront the band sound effectively present. Brendan's Aussie vocals drawl is their centre within the madness; emulating conversations, trains of thought or gibbering streams of consciousness. A lesson to students of the effectiveness of simplicity in an original idea.

Eddy Current's set is long-ish yet the energy never drops. A crowd surfer encourages Brendan to let himself fall into waiting arms and roll casually back onto stage, before the singer eventually making his way through to the bar (microphone in hand), punishes a beer and resuming the set from the depth. They close the set out in power - albeit shorter than planned, due to a late start - with 'I Admit My Faults' and the encore of 'Pitch a Tent'. Yet another big tick then for the band least likely to.

Nick Holt