The Pictures

At the final leg of a month long Australian tour, this was The Pictures first time in Tasmania promoting their new album, Pieces of Eight. I was rather curious about The Pictures as I had heard a lot of talking up about the band, and more particularly lead singer Davey Lane (member of You Am I). A fair size crowd turned up considering it was only Friday night and there was another Pictures show happening the next night.

Support first up was local band Unleash the Nugget. Whether you are a fan or not it is clear that they have tightened, at least since I last saw them play. Next up was The Vandas….I really enjoyed their set but it was uniform Aussie rock music and their performance didn’t blow me away. However they warmed up the crowd appropriately and put on a fairly good show of enthusiasm (considering the end of the tour).

The Pictures certainly looked the part with Davey wearing the token cowboy shirt and Cons and the appropriate good head of hair, drummer Johnny T with the big hair and a big smile to boot. The first couple of songs didn’t really stand out but by the third song, the very rock ‘stupid me’ the crowd was starting to move forward.

A few songs into the piece they pumped out What you want and Davey assured the audience it was ‘what they wanted’, this song had a Ted Mulray ‘jump in my car’ esk sound. The crowd soaked it up.

All my ties was a tune that Davey himself referred to as a good song, a bit of a slower tune but decent no less. For To the top bassist Luke Thomas took the mic. Thomas really got into this tune and his enthusiastic thrusting really rubbed off on the crowd. By this stage there were people on the street sticky beaking through the stiff steamed up little windows.

Headley grange was a highlight (by now Davey very sweaty) and included a great guitar riff. The track of the night was undoubtedly I don’t care and Davey referred to it as being probably their next single ‘if we get to release a new single.’ Sarcasm, you’ve got to love it! It’s clear this song is single material because it had a poppy catchy element. The crowd clapped in time and there were some ‘rock and roll’ hoarse screams and a 70’s, deep purple/led zeppelin guitar riff to boot.

The big single Pissin with the Catman was another highlight with its catlike yew, yews. The crowd recognized it and lapped it up. To the encore…where Davey warned ‘tonight is not at all indicative of our world’s best!’ The encore included a fun cover of the classic easy listening track by the Traveling Wilburys ‘handle me with care.’ The choice of cover was very rock to take a somewhat naf tune and make it ‘cool’. Sadly the joke may have been missed by some of the younger members of the audience. The last track ‘Don’t you wanna know’ brought a fitting end to the night starting of with Daveys signature hoarse scream and a ‘Jimi Hendrix’ fold into the guitar, and ending with Davey joining the audience on the sticky beer soaked floor, literally.

What was my final verdict? The Republic was an appropriate venue for the gig as far as size/atmosphere goes. In general there was plenty of action on the stage on Daveys behalf and the bass player certainly didn’t mind getting down either. Johnny T kept a huge grin on his face the entire time The Pictures served up a really good bit of Aussie rock but they certainly didn’t blow me away. They had some solid tracks, carried themselves well and put on a good show; the crowd clearly enjoyed the performance and got their $15 worth. The Pictures undoubtedly picked up some fans after their solid crowd pleasing performance on this particular evening. All things said, worth checking out!

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