Lyric Lane
Lyrics Underground
The name of the venue is all mixed up with the name of the lane its situated in. It confused me. And also confused the internet. But that doesn’t matter as we had a swell hit out with Marty Casey on bass at this clean, well maintained, well managed venue in a downstairs room in Maylands, a suburb of Perth.
The sound person knew what she was doing and had answers to any problem involving a missing power chord or lead and was totally unflustered. They provided a drum kit and a bass amp and we brought guitars, an amp, cymbals and effects pedals.
They gave us great food and it all ran very smoothly. The audience was seated at tables and chairs or high stools at higher tables.
Marty played slide guitar with his band Big Boss Man who did an opening set. Two guitars, bass, drums and saxophones. They played the Jimmy Reed track after which they are named as well as folk classics like Goin Down The Road Feelin Bad and many songs of their own. A great unit with one guitar playing slide and another soloing freely with a clean, trebley bridge pickup sound as the singer Dickens made show with voice and dramatic skills. The sax gave it a tuneful, rhythmic pump that sounded like Lou Reeds Rock N Roll Heart period. To that end, Marty stepped to the microphone (he had been sitting and playing slide guitar before) and sang a sweet, pop styled version of the Velvets Sweet Jane to close their set.
We go back to the Triffids days with Marty. When they first came to Melbourne in 1982 with an EP they released via Mushroom. They then went back to Perth and then relocated to Sydney and then followed our band The Moodists and the Go Betweens and Birthday Party and the Scientists to London and Europe for much of the 80s.
When the Moodists came to a halt in 1987 in London I started to write more complete songs and wanted to do a demo to try and get a record deal and rehearsed up a few things with Clare on drums and marty on bass. The Triffids were then with Island and had access to a rehearsal room at the labels office which helped with the material and also to see somebody we knew having some access or connection to a music business situation. Things were possible.
We kept in touch with Marty ( and other ex Triffids as well) in ensuing years. Conway Savage played piano with us in Melbourne 1989 in the White Buffaloes and he was invited to join Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on piano in 1990 or 1991 where Marty was in the bass slot. Increasing the Australian quota within that band. He still plays with Nick today.
Our set at Lyric Lane was about 75 minutes. Clare and I played four songs with guitar and keys before Marty joined us. We then played through some 90s Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes era songs as well as six or so from In A Mistly and Wilco Got No Wilco from Everything Was Funny. The latter album is out of print at the moment. I am in the frame of mind to just keep producing music while I’m still coming up with it. Eventually I might come to a time where I have to make sure things are available in some form in a proper way. In no way could I release everything on vinyl though. I don’t have the capital to do that. I also feel we are not really a part of any musical scene at all. We aren’t American and don’t resemble anything coming from there or from the UK and also Australia. We are our own thing. We don’t figure in the talk. We don’t get invited to play blues festivals or retro 80s or 90s shows and generally don’t slot into conversations in roots music circles or indie scenes or mainstream group hugs. We are out there on our own.
How did our set go? I spent most of it worrying about my guitar sound as I was playing a borrowed amp and it kept getting a rough, gritty, slightly distorted tone. I like it super clean so that was disturbing me. But that gritty, dirty tone helped when I need it to be there. As we finished our set by playing I’m Gonna Release Your Soul I thanked everybody for coming and asked if there was anything anybody came along expecting to hear. Usually people ask for Three Dead Passengers In A Stolen Second Hand Ford which we play in a very different arrangement to the 1993 version (so that doesn’t please anybody) which is a bit of a bummer of a tune to end a show with or Rock N Roll Is Where I Hide. The latter was the only other song that Marty had learned to play. People asked to hear Robert Ford On The Stage from 1999, The Brother Who Lived From 2003 and Mr Bad Luck from 2005. We played all but the last as that has a load of words to recall that I would need to consult a book about. Thank you people for such high quality, obscure requests!