The Pink Stainless (Tail) / Registered Nurse / The Bites @ The Rob Roy

I'm a little late in writing up last weekend's gig at the Rob Roy. Our correspondant over at The Dutch Are Weeping was much more prompt in his review.

The most notable part of the night was the presence of a fellow who looking remarkably like the gent on the left in this article. At a gig full of grungy university kids and various 'scenesters' this was quiet unexpected. In my mind I had him pinned as an over-zealous and aging record company A&R Scout or the father of the girl in the first band. He turned out to be neither.

The Bites - indie glasses included

The first band were a no-show. The Bites took the stage a little late and played a short set of generic garage rock. I warmed to them a little in the second half of their set. The singer is charismatic and has a Kim Gordon quality to her, but the music just doesn't do much for me. Lots of distorted chords stabbed on the beat (and repeat).

Registered Nurse (not jazzy despite the double bass)

Registered Nurse followed with a chaotic, rushed and shortened set heavily laced with Ex-Underground-Lover Richard Andrew swapping guitars and tunings. For all his finagaling I couldn't hear an scrap of difference in his guitar sound. They finished off with a nice tune called Strippers full of distorted slide guitar and feedback. It had potential if they jammed on it for another 10 minutes. Unfortunately they were shuffled off the stage for the final band. I don't think they 'jam' much regardless.

The Pink Stainless (Tail) - a different gig, but you get the idea

Our middle aged, grey-suited, slick-haired friend from earlier was still in attendance and made an appearance on stage at this time. I was sure he was some sort of band management drone, but he turned out to be the lead vocalist for the The Pink Stainless (Tail). I watched with mouth agape as they cranked through a handful of garagey rock tunes with Simon Strong (according to their website) ranting over the top. While I couldn't grasp much lyrically, it seemed like a stream of conscience to rival Bad Boy Bubby or Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler. I could ramble struggled influences for a few paragraphs, but there was definitely some Krautrock, Punk and Art Rock in there.

The Pink Stainless (Tail) were not really my thing, but there's a couple of interesting tidbits I uncovered while writing this entry. Firstly they covered Pyschic TV's Godstar. Psychic TV were a little on the early side of industrial for me, but I am a fan of Peter Christopherson's later outfit Coil. To move even further from the topic at hand, Jhon Balance from Coil died late last year. I believe he fell from a second storey balcony while under the influence of alcohol. Coil are an enigma worthy of a good biography one day. I suspect I'm the only person to read this who will ever hear them.

The other interesting thing is that their guitarist is Harry Howard, brother of Rowland S. Howard and sometime bass player for Nick Cave's The Birthday Party. Their website also makes mention of one of them playing in My Bloody Valentine. With My Bloody Valentine and Underground Lovers represented, we've covered off a good portion of my "80's Aussie alternative bands that I get confused" which consists of My Bloody Valentine, Underground Lovers, My Dying Bride, The Loved Ones, Died Pretty and also the INXS song "The Loved One". There's a few more, but I can't recall them. Also I know some of those bands aren't from the 80's.

Simon Strong also has a website. It begins with "Welcome to the cortex of my website". The whole thing seems to be a combination of quasi-serious literature mixed with coy satire of academic papers. It made my head hurt.