Friday 02/01/09 Gomez, Epicure @ The Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide

With five albums under their belt, Epicure are about as far into their career as the band they’re supporting. They’ve roused nothing like as much interest as Gomez, of course, yet going by tonight’s performance it’s difficult to understand why. Initially, that is. They might be none-too-adventurous musically, offering driving blues and country-tinged rock along with the occasional rather passionless ballad, but the Ballarat five-piece are playing as if their lives depend on it, and they’re impressively tight. It’s easy to be carried along by the energy they’re putting into it, but by the end of the set – despite the obvious strengths – two major deficiencies become apparent. The singer, and the songs. Neither are exactly bad, but nor do they offer much in the way of character or inventiveness. Which is a shame.

After a promising start, Epicure turn out a rather well baked water biscuit rather than the sort of gourmet feast their name suggests. Perhaps Gomez will whip out the Stilton and send our taste buds into a tizzy.

Word in advance was that the lads from Southport would be playing a ‘regular’ set tonight, but that idea is scuppered the moment they take the stage and tell us what they’ve got planned. Instead, we’re heading back to that brief moment when it looked as if Gomez might be the future of rock and roll: the evening’s entertainment will be Bring It On, their Mercury Prize-winning debut, in its entirety. Everyone else in the crowd seems delighted. Gigwise, naturally enough, had been hoping that a ‘regular’ set in a smallish city on the far side of the planet would be the ideal place for Gomez to roadtest their new album, slated for release in late March. Unfortunately, that’s not to be. Two new songs do make it into the encore, but they’re outshone by How We Operate and We Haven’t Turned Around. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though: we’ve got one of 1998’s best albums to reconsider.

Ten years on, most rock bands – including plenty of the all-time greats – would be able to do justice to a full-tilt assault on their debut relatively easily. But Gomez were never like most bands. Bring It On immediately stood out as an unusually mature work, more like something you’d expect from a band that had been doing the rounds for years and had suddenly made their big breakthrough.

Taken purely on its own, tonight’s performance isn’t enhancing any reputations. The decision to play Bring It On shows neither the band – known for their excellent stage performance – nor the album at their best. It’s not that their musicianship is lacking, nor that the sound system isn’t up to the job, it’s simply that it’s too complex and too subtle a recording for the five of them to recreate convincingly. And when it’s played as a whole like this, you really start to miss those little sonic hooks that went into the original work. It’s an album with more that its share of great songs, for sure, but it’s also an album that was made by its intricate arrangements and beautifully voiced details. Revisiting Bring It On might work in a larger hall with plenty of additional musicians, but in the sweaty, crowded back room of a pub it falls flat. Happily, going back to the original CD the next morning brings it all into perspective. Despite everything that’s changed since, the album fully deserves the acclaim it won. Still.

To make matters on the night that little bit worse, the performance itself is lacklustre. Tom Gray does his best to be the life of the party, yet his concern for his New Year hangover soon wears thin; Ian Ball is taciturn to the point of seeming indifferent. Fortunately though, the rhythm section is solid and Ben Ottewell and his astonishing voice are in the mood to dominate proceedings, just as they did back in 1998.

But now, if you don’t mind, since Gomez didn’t deliver the Stilton, it’s time to head off and find some monosodium glutamate to snort.

Gomez in Adelaide: