Live Review: Teenage Fanclub, The Goon Sax

There's good news and bad news for fans of young local indie rock purveyors The Goon Sax: on the negative front they're soon to decamp to Berlin to continue their ongoing sonic evolution, but on the plus side — if tonight's performance is anything to go by — they're going to leave us with a stellar goodbye gift.

The trio have been locked away of late working on their impending second album, and tonight air a decent clutch of the new songs such as Sleep Easy and Make Time For Love, which nestle perfectly amongst old faves like Up To Anything, Sometimes Accidentally and Boyfriend. Both co-frontmen Louis Forster and James Harrison have strong new songs in their armories, while drummer Riley Jones' increasingly strong voice is being utilised more on backing vocals giving a vaguely Dick Diver edge to proceedings. We wish them well for their travels but hope they don’t stay too long abroad, they’re needed here at home.

By now there’s a huge midweek crowd assembled in The Triffid for the long-awaited return of Scottish alt-rockers Teenage Fanclub — at least double that which witnessed their last Brisbane show at The Zoo some dozen years ago — and they waste no time jumping into the fray, kicking off with Start Again and unleashing those untouchable vocal harmonies from the get-go. They're looking a bit older these days but the songwriting triumvirate of guitarists Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley and bassist Gerard Love have lost none of their natural simpatico, each stepping up to the plate when its their lead vocal turn knowing that their bandmates will be providing exquisite vocal support throughout.

Sometimes I Don't Need To Believe In Anything gives way to Hold On — the first song tonight from brand-new tenth album Here, which they’re celebrating on this tour — with keyboardist Dave McGowan moving to third guitar during I Don’t Want Control Of You and beefing up the sound in the process. Drummer Francis MacDonald provides a driving beat for Verisimilitude which segues into the throbbing pulse of It’s All In My Mind, while another vibrant new track The First Sight proves as lush and sunny as anything they've put their name to in the past. The room's pristine sonics provide perfect separation of both vocals and instruments, and the band seem to revel in the acoustic bliss, pumping out numbers like Dumb Dumb Dumb, About You and I Need Direction with the joie de vivre of musicians half their age.

Blake brings out the tiny glockenspiel for Your Love Is The Place Where I Come From, the band's sound so calm and serene with no harsh edges evident and, after Ain't That Enough and I'm In Love, the familiar intro to the evergreen Sparky's Dream elicits a thrilled response from the still transfixed crowd, Love taking the reins but helped out significantly by the delighted throng before him. Audience participation remains strong as they finish the main set with another old fave The Concept, the crowd attacking the "Oh yeah" refrain with unbridled joy as many are no doubt transported in their minds back to the early '90s when the song first surfaced, the song's poppy overtones devolving into a sea of jubilant soft rock as they exit to a massive roar. 

It doesn't take much to coax the Fannies back for an encore, new song I Was Beautiful When I Was Alive sounding full and vibrant before it gives way to a killer rendition of Star Sign, as beautiful as anything that has come before so far tonight. They give a nod to the city of Brisbane with a gorgeous cover of Grant McLennan's solo belter Easy Come Easy Go, then go back to where it all started to finish with their first-ever single, Everything Flows, which still sounds so perfectly languid all these years (and decades) later. A triumphant return for a band who, whilst massively respected, somehow manage to remain criminally underrated after all this time.