ROOT! – East Brunswick Club : Gig Reviews

You cannot feasibly compare ROOT! to any other band, Australian or otherwise. You could make loose associations, but this would be doing a great disservice to a band that have worked hard to fashion a unique sound in an overpopulated market.

Appearing from behind the East’s curtain in hi-vis work wear, frontman DC hanging from an inexplicable ladder centre stage, ROOT! launch into a gem from their new album Surface Paradise called Orange People (“Things stalled in the bedroom, I couldn’t understand ‘er/ She says ‘go’ but then she’s flashing am-ber”) and new track Everybody. Punters that stood in the very Melbournian fashion of legs akimbo, arms crossed and begrudgingly patient expression, were now happily foot-tapping, head-bobbing and, for the more discerning ROOT!er, gleefully singing along.

The dark country-rock of Get Up Yourself (“It’s not soul, it’s solipsism”) and (Sort Of) Emo further illustrate DC Root’s knack for penning bang-on acerbic witticisms encased in catchy rock and roll tunes. As he meanders through an excitable crowd (“I feel like I’m at Earthcore!”), he rattles off an effortless diatribe; DC’s biting speech-ettes are like the audio commentary you wish you had on the straight-to-DVD movie that is your life.

The Ronettes-esque Famous for Being Famous for Being Famous (“Pragmatically, romantically, I’m catch of the century/ She said, ‘That means sweet FA to me’”) and keys-soaked hot desert hoedown of Shazza and Michelle follow; but it is (the highlight of ROOT!’s debut album, Root Supposed He Was Out of the Question) I Still Call Australia ‘Ho!’ that really gets the crowd into Irish pub-style theatrics. The call-and-response chorus and manic keys by Steve Root go off tap; its only energetic equivalent is fellow …Question number I Wish I Was Tex Perkins where the affable Henri Root on guitar shows what a true rock guitarist sounds like. One can see what makes that front row pump their fists with such gusto.

With ROOT! gone, but their new DVD (launched at tonight’s show) safe in my hands, I am left- though shivering in the icy Melbourne autumn- happy that somewhere there is a band who don’t have the exact same mission statement as everyone else; a band that don’t pander to the lowest common denominator, or make music seemingly tailored for a compilation entitled “Cure for an Insomniac”. It’s a good feeling.