Date: June 28, 2009
Venue: Brisbane Powerhouse
Acts: Strange Attractors, Drawn From Bees
The bill for this gig probably ought to have been reversed. Strange Attractors who? Maybe I’m just not with the cool kids clique these days. The plus is that their straight-from-the-sixties Stones-inspired sound that’s full of a ridiculous number of male harmonies proves quite arresting. It’s good fun. The minus — a minus primarily for the band, rather than the listener — is the back-of-the-mind feeling that it’s all a bit niche. And in terms of stagecraft, they’re virtually sessile.
Even on the spacious Turbine Room stage, they manage to looked awkward and cramped up. It makes composition difficult, and a weird dim spot in centre stage doesn’t make it any easier to get usable shots.
Drawn From Bees, on the other hand, prove far easier to shoot — a fact aided by familiarity and better lighting. I’m also enjoying these guys more and more — both live and on album. Waiting For The End, in particular, is an exceptional tune — its psychedelic melancholy could have come straight from the Vietnam War era.