Live Review: The Babe Rainbow, Parsnip, Banana Gun

As always, The Curtin provides a haven of warmth for friends to celebrate live music. Banana Gun pull the trigger on the first set of the night, screeching through with some seriously eclectic, early-styled garage/psych-rock. It's hard to tell who is actually in the band since the amount of people on stage seems to fluctuate, but everyone's having fun so it doesn't matter so much. 

Parsnip are next up and the girls arrive with power and a solid nod to the unappreciated underground; this is the kind of band that sounds like that unbelievably obscure record from 1968 that we've never heard of. It's poppy, left-of-centre and they own it! The group are no strangers to Melbourne band rooms these days and make up the ranks of a handful of other local bands. This output is punchy and tweaked just enough so that we can't quite put our finger on why we're bopping our heads endlessly, but we do so for pretty much the whole set.

Tonight Byron Bay's own psych-pop revivalists The Babe Rainbow are touring their new self-titled album and it seems that most of the town has made it their mission to get down in a kaleidoscopic groove. The Babe Rainbow are immediately sexy and groovy; they know what they do and they do it well. Lead flower child, Angus Dowling twists and gyrates much to the delight of those up front. Their particular brand of psychedelic-pop licks have everyone swaying while Jack "Cool Breeze" Crowther grooves along to the right of the stage. The sound is articulate and well placed in every moment. After spinning through a daisy field of tracks from their new self-titled album the group announce Love Forever to enthusiastic screams. One of their earlier singles, this song is a clear culmination of all that the group put forward as their gift to the world and those present tonight. The following track Johnny Says Stay Cool breaks in through the grooving lines bouncing from bassist Lu-Lu-Felix Domingo. With swift pace the band almost lose themselves as they let Nick Van Bakel of Banana Gun take on an impressively enthusiastic bongo solo. Before we've even had a chance to catch ourselves the band breaks into a jubilant cover of Blondie's Heart Of Glass and a massive singalong ensues.

The night reaches peak party mode before Dowling announces that the next song is their encore and that everyone should pretty much get on stage right now. The beat kicks in and the stage is engulfed by the crowd.