Live Review: Café Of The Gate Of Salvation

Just off the main mall at Bondi Junction, the Jam Gallery was perhaps an unlikely place to hear a gospel choir on a Saturday night, least of all a group that's now 27 years young and counting. But the Café Of The Gate Of Salvation took the relatively new room well, drawing the faithful (sorry!) with a warm banter between regular fans in the crowd and the big choir, as well as interest from newbies and passersby. The latter were particularly interesting; sitting near the door to the other room for the second set you could see mouths drop as punters in the other bar listened to standard pub rock get hit with a wall of a cappella goodness.

The Café's sound does have all the makings of an American Sunday service from the Deep South, but there's plenty for those not quite on that path. Rock'n'roll had its roots in gospel, and the guts and catchiness of it was there too. The cover of Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come took us there, as did Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready (the very final tune for the night – getting ready for home and new lockout laws, perhaps?). There were shades of The King, Elvis Presley, with I Cried Holy, soul with Al Green's Take Me To The River and even a little country also crept in with Patty Griffin's I Went Up To The Mountain. Traditional black South African music was also evoked with the stunning tribute to Nelson Mandela, Asimbonanga, originally written in the late '80s but gaining a new significance following his passing.

Over the two sets and encore the choir changed conductors, soloists and played with and without the band, not needing a support to give the Gallery a couple of hours of solid sound. While the details of individual members were sometimes hard to grab (and apologies to the fantastic soloist who was reported as a 'second generation Café member', whose name I missed), perhaps having an overwhelming whole rather than parts made more sense for the group anyway. Great sounds for believers of good music, not matter what their denomination.