Live Review: TV, Loose Tooth, Jules Sheldon

One man armed with one guitar opens the evening at Abbottsford’s Yarra Hotel. It’s Jules Sheldon, and he’s playing the fruits of his labour with the rigid, solemn wistfulness of somebody who means what they’re saying. It’s a small crowd, but an attentive one nonetheless. Sheldon’s musings can even be heard from the other side of the bar. Patrons all the while enjoy the warmth of the band room as they munch away on vegan-friendly pub meals. There’s a lot of beer around, too.  

Local trio Loose Tooth follow Sheldon. They play some strange hybrid of rock’n’roll that considers a fair few of its denominations, with doo-wop, pop and easy-on-the-ears punk coming to the foreground throughout their set. They all sing, but the lead singer is drummer Etta Curry, who manages to seamlessly sustain the group’s backbone and vocal cords with complete ease. The songs themselves are as catchy as anything, refreshing in a world where all too often ‘garage pop’ just denotes pop music with crappy recording quality. In the case of these guys however, you’d be strapped to find a local band that does garage pop better. 

T.V., who formerly went by the stage name Tam Vantage, hits the stage with his three other band members in tow. It’s a simple line-up for simple music — pop with the shavings of ‘80s Australiana — all performed to a tee. It’s shavings only though; the music doesn’t allude too much to The Triffids’ local resurgence and it certainly isn’t ‘jangly’. The tracks see frontman Tam Matlakowski pondering subjects like love and, heck, even marriage, over no-bullshit, four-chord allotments. He plays songs from his recent EP, Setting Sun, as well as his even newer single, Do You Remember, omitting older, quieter tracks in favour of a big wall of sound. The instruments meld together and engulf the audience, who are still for the most part eating chips and drinking beers. They’re very much enjoying it though — the music isn’t that loud but its arrangement makes it omnipresent. It’s all around. Matlakowski sidelines banter and periodically thanks the audience for coming. Really though, no thanks is needed — it was our pleasure.