Rowland S. Howard put on a pretty good show, finishing up as usual with the wonderfully brooding Panic Moon (at least, that's what he said it was called, last time I saw him). He even smiled, a few times. I'm not sure a lot of the people in the crowd knew what to make of him, but Gentle Ben reminded us how lucky we are to be able to see him whenever we can - apparently he hasn't been to Brisbane since the These Immortal Souls days.

I didn't know a thing about Gentle Ben and his Sensitive Side apart from reading the website at Spooky Records (who very kindly put my name on the door after asking to use one of my old photos of Rowland S. Howard for an ad, or something). But he's a pretty lively fellow when he gets up on stage - hot and sweaty, shaking and dancing, and doing that rock-star windmill thing with one arm. It's all quite fun to watch. The guitar work's pretty neat, helping with the whole old-style overwrought love schtick (I'm presuming there's a touch of humour in all this), and I can't help but wonder what'd happen if somebody did a Phil Spector-like production¹ on one of their songs. I bought the album they were launching, The Beginning of the End - it's pretty good, but not quite as much fun as seeing them live. If you're ever up in Brisbane, you know who to go and see.

Tonight (Sunday), Registered Nurse are playing at the Rob Roy, with support from Cam Butler and Everyday People (I think that's their name?).

[ see all my Rowland S. Howard pictures | see all my Gentle Ben and his Sensitive Side pictures. ]

[1] a memorable description from David Toop's Ocean of Sound was:

On a Ronettes record, teenage life crises were amplified by Phil Spector's production to the scale of a major meteorological disturbance.