Coalcliff Community Hall played host to the most excitement its probably seen in the last 50 years this past week as Spunk Records took it over for a label family night. The old country town hall setting proved quite the atmosphere with the tiny stage overlooking rows of grey school chairs, backed by a canteen selling chips and soda which was inadvertantly run by the bands themselves over the course of the evening.
This was music as it should be; communal, intimate, warm and relaxed. The Vietnam War, made up of four ragged looking Kiwis, kicked off the evening with a short selection of dreary, deep-throated ballads from their debut album. And dreary in this instance is a compliment not a criticism. They know what they're going for and set the mood right, best instanced by lead-singer Lubin's clumsy, deliberate grasp for his harmonica from the front pocket of his shirt each time it's necessary. There is no force in these actions, yet they're comfortable and right, just like the songs.
After a brief, coca-cola and creaming soda filled interlude Hollie Fullbrook took the stage as Tiny Ruins, yet another Kiwi (of sorts, as her British accent betrays). Hollie is a singer-songwriter in the truest sense - she has a stunning voice that will silence any room; she writes well-crafted songs musically and lyrically and she can play guitar very competently. Hers was a solid set, somewhat afflicated by the echo of the room, but her awareness of this showed as she stepped in front of the microphone for her second-to-last song and perfomed an entirely acoustic number that was likely everyone's highlight of the evening.
Last up was the ever-consistent Holly Throsby and the Hello Tigers, a band that I have seen numerous times and am always enthralled with, seemingly moreso on each repeat. Kicking off solo on stage with the title track from her album Under the Town, Holly's voice started fragily, before gaining strength as first Bree and then Jens appeared during the song's duration to make up the incredibly talented Hello Tigers. They swung into a set frought with technical difficulties, the highlight of which saw Bree's accordian literally fall apart, that only increased the intimacy of the evening as Holly (and band) won the crowd over with their typical self-depreciating humour, including a few rather hilarious jokes. As she interacted with the crowd, including crying children, and moved through many songs from Under the Town, as well as a good selection from her new album Team and the classic Would You and Warm Jets from 2008's A Loud Call, Holly proved why she is one of Australia's foremost, though likely underrated, female artists and why many in the crowd had already seen her perform numerous times and would do so again at any given opportunity. She is a jem and though the Coalcliff Community Hall may have had much of its character buried for quite some time, this was just the right evening to give it an injection of life.
