Peabody

What can you say about Peabody’s live reputation? One of Australia’s and no doubt the worlds best live acts. Known to rip apart stages and tear apart ears all while keeping cool, straight faces. Having seen them in force over the years it would be fair to say that they have all the energy of an atomic bomb and unleash it without mercy on the unsuspecting audience who at a glance might mistake them for the indie 60’s pop thing. Oh how wrong they are! Though their sound does have roots in that era they are as far from that live as a biscuit is to a gold plated toilet bowl. They may keep straight faces but underneath it all is a relentless punch that breaks you apart piece by piece until you’re nothing but skin and bones and wondering what happened to your ears. However that was the old Peabody, and until tonight I have not seen them in a few years. The lineup had not only changed slightly but also grown an extra limb in the shape of a second guitarist. “No matter.” I said to myself knowing that the creative juices of front-man Bruno must be in overdrive and I’m sure would be just as exciting as I’d seen before. And how right I was. Where previously their sets were full of infectious, speed driven, rock n roll mayhem, tonight I saw a thinking mans rock band develop. Oh they still retain the tight rock riffage they always had but the set contained mostly new songs, undoubtedly from their new album due out early 2008 and they have developed and gone beyond the catchy 3-minute anthems.

The big difference in this set from previous outings, and indeed from older catalogue songs was that they had all these slow burners that took more work as an audience member to appreciate. Previously their songs hit you like a tower of bricks with catchy sing along choruses and guitar riffs that you air guitar-ed your way back to the car with. But these new batch of songs eased you in gently before really opening up to what they were about. It made the audience really pay attention to what was going on and though I loved having to think about my music for once some of the inebriated crowd there who were just after big riffs were soon lost to the band up at the front bar. However, the dedicated few that stayed got much more out of this Peabody set.

They played a few of the older rock gems that I was very happy about as I was dying to hear “Got you on my radar” live, having just bought the IVY League compilation “10 years in the trenches” that it is featured on and also the indie anthem “Stupid boy” which always gets the crowd going nuts. And they played them so stupendously well that you knew that the band had not lost an ounce of their atomic rock abilities or that the new lineup could not match the power of the older one. In fact having the extra guitar in those songs particularly really filled them out to match the record sound closer than the 3 piece originally could.

The main thing I noticed different from the old lineup was that this new lineup had lost a bit of the mod rock element. The last drummer had a bit of that sloppy Keith

Moon style about him where the new guy was a bit more solid. This didn’t matter at all; it’s just a general observation. The new guitarist though I felt was a bit up and down. Too often I’ve seen the addition of a ‘lead’ guitarist seem necessary to replicate studio recordings but onstage seem nothing more than an extra and not that essential. Tonight I think that happened a couple of times but overall his presence was needed more than not in the new songs. However I think a group that has been used to only 1 guitar playing lead, rhythm and everything in between will always find it hard to adapt to the second guy being there.

All in all I was very comforted to see that Peabody had not lost any of their live cred and can still leave you feeling like you had a vital organ removed but was also excited to hear the new directions this band is going with their live show and new recording. They had already made 2 corker albums of riff heavy jump along rock numbers so this new phase in the band is a welcome evolution. I look forward to seeing more of the new Peabody and hope that audiences take the time to listen more as I’m sure (and this will undoubtedly be apparent when the album comes out) that these new batch of songs will give you more than 3 minutes of headbanging joy.

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