The Drones

A band that’s done the hard yards, moved from Perth to Melbourne, paid their dues and this year after touring overseas, and receiving accolades from the likes of Nick Cave and The Suicides, they well deservedly won the 2006 Apra Development award. $25,000 will go a long way to start paying off their debts. This show was going to be their last before their overseas tour with Mudhoney.

The night was cold, the venue was packed. There were four bands, didn’t manage to catch the first two, but made it in time for Clinkerfield. An interesting five piece, probably more suited to a more intimate setting. Apparently they regularly play The Old Bar, Fitzroy. They had a very acoustic feel reminiscant of eighties country pop, like the Hunters and Gatherers. Their last song, ‘Pissin down in Colbo’ which they have released as a single, got the crowd joining in the na na na’s.

The Drones, half the crowd there loved them, the other were there out of curiosity. A fact the band was fully aware of, as Gareth introduced the last song with ‘This song goes out to the twenty people that bought our first album’, a cynical reference to their ‘overnight’ success.

Gareth on lead vocals has an energy and charisma that forces his music straight into your heart, tugs at your emotions, and nearly brought me to tears. He plays with your emotions, welling them up inside you, building up to a crescendo, but he didn’t let you down with a crash, but placed you gently on the floor with an acoustic number three songs in. But this wasn’t a solo act, the rest of the band play a very important part in the whole Drones experience.

Fi, bass and vocals, with a sweet angelic voice, stands there looking cool an aloof, with the icy coolness of Meg White. The other guitarist, Roo, almost hiding on stage, keeping to himself playing the solid melody, holding the band together like flour and water. Keeping himself back not wanting to be distracted by Gareth’s wild channelling of emotions through his music.

In one song the drummer and bass played a thumping primitive beat that welled up through your feet like a tsunami.

The Drones brought out two reactions from people, confusion or religious fervour. Like the Psycadelic rock that was coming out of London in the early eighties, Spaceman 3 and Butthole Surfers, this band will warp your mind and take you to a higher plane. There’s a new church in town, a new religion and its The Drones. I absolutely loved this band, after hearing so much about them, I was prepared to be let down, but I wasn’t, I was overwhelmed.

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