The Evelyn (15/1/2009)

Went to the Evelyn last night without my good friend Jimmy to see The Good China and was pleasantly surprised.

The Evelyn
Great place, however contrary to what I previously said about this place there is a massive column the width of a very fat man right smack in the middle of the place and due to the place being a bit more full than usual, last night I was stuck partially behind it. Also the levels were a bit off (ear popping guitar - inaudible violin). That said - great place, still love it to bits!

The Good China
I've seen these guys and girls (7 on stage) before and I didn't really go for the pretentious instrument swapping after every song, but last night these guys rocked the place. They have a very catchy boppy sound that their myspace page describes as "Indie / Pop / Chinese pop" and which I am failing to describe so listen to them for yourself here. They were first on the bill and managed to retain the largest crowd that we saw all the night. They manage to utilise their massive array of instruments (and musicians) without over-doing it and still allowing for some brilliant solo work (awesome violinist - was a pity it couldn't be heard).

Summer Cats
Next up were Summer Cats. They're an Indie band from Melbourne, played many short songs (average of 3 minutes a piece) which would be refreshing but they didn't really do anything for us. Much of the performance quality was obscured by the ego emanating from the lead singer who appeared to love the sound of his own voice and persisted on using it at every possible opportunity.

Seagull
These guys were my highlight of the night. They sounded like a tightened up and inverted version of Godspeed you black emperor (I think that needs explanation), in that their sound had the same feeling only they mostly started and finished at a climactic points with a slowed down part in the middle and their songs were only about 12 minutes each. On a side note the vocalist sounded a lot like Thom York (Radiohead) and it made for a great formula which I would want to see again with better mixing (too much guitar!).
Just in case Seagull are reading this, I'm sorry again for trying to give the bass player my empty beer glass, you approached a nearby table wearing a black T-shirt and pointing to an almost empty beer glass and I thought you were the bar staff.