The Aussie BBQ NYC

Great all day show! Most of the bands were amazing! Drawn from Bees and Jezebels were the highlight of my day!

rand Atlantic was back in town and part of the Aussie BBQ at Bowery Ballroom so rtb and I bought tickets and were hoping to chow down on some authentic Aussie BBQ in addition to the full day of Aussie music but we only got half of that. Or actually a quarter. We both had originally planned on seeing a full set by power pop/indie rock band Grand Atlantic the night before at the Living Room but neither of us were feeling well and we skipped it. The band was the first one up at 1:30pm and it was after one and they still weren t letting people in. But we talked with Andrew and his bassist brother Sean Bower and found out that the Living Room gig was very well attended (Yay!), that they d played Chicago the night before and they were on their way for several gigs for SXSW and Houston and then the west coast. Another band was driving back from a Toronto gig the night before and they arrived while were outside fully dressed and ready to play. Rock and roll baby. When they finally opened the doors we noticed there was no food and no merch table. All these bands fly out from Australia and you don t even offer them a spot to sell their cds? An hour or so later I could smell something baking and when we left we saw that they were selling Dub Pies in the merch table spot. The same pies that are sold at the Bell House. In addition to Bower, Grand Atlantic is Phil Usher on guitar and lead vocals, Morgan Hann on 12-string lead guitar and Mat Von Diehm on drums. It was a great opening to the day but unfortunately the crowd was very small. It s good music with a beat that you can dance to. It s the best of 60s power pop made modern and I was wishing I d been able to see them the night before because it s a band you can t get enough of. Next was Katy Steele, who was a real trouper since she d just been asked to the gig two days before. She comes from a family full of musicians and used to be in the band Little Birdy. She s cute she plays a custom Hello Kitty Telecaster and dresses cute and sings cute and the lyrics are cute and it was okay but I d rather have heard a double set of Grand Atlantic. Drawn from Bees is another Brisbane band and the band that drove the nine hours from Toronto. Their first song was their sound check and once they settled in they sounded great. They call themselves an art rock band and lead singer/guitarist Dan James and lead guitarist Raven Jones dress the part. Stew Riddle on bass and vocals and Matt Wedmaier on drums and vocals are the rock half and I think their rhythm section has more influence on the music than the art/progressive half. James had a wonderful rock moment with one of the songs where he was grabbing the mic and bending over and yelling/singing and they might think this music is more for listening than for dancing but they d be wrong. At this point I d decided it was the end of what had been a very emotional week for me and I needed to go home. But the short performances were a nice indication of what Australia currently has to offer.