Check Check

“Bluetile Lounge appeared fully formed to me in a vision at the UWA Refectory sometime around mid 1993,” writes Guy Blackman.

“I was a 19 year old stripling in Perth, occasionally waking up in time to attend uni lectures, when this friendly guy from my English Lit class told me he was playing in a Battle Of the Bands at the Ref at lunch.

“I went along with no expectations, but then Bluetile Lounge took the stage, playing just two songs in their allotted 20 minutes. They were unassuming in dark flannel shirts and murmured vocals, but possessed a magical twin guitar interplay and performed the most languorous, slowed down country-rock ever heard.”

Bluetile Lounge will play their first show in a quarter century, and their first ever show outside Perth, at Melbourne’s Brunswick Ballroom on Thursday 2 April.

Read Guy’s chat with guitarist and singer Dan Erickson and guitarist Gabrielle Stokes via the link in the comments.

The last time Pulp played in Melbourne, in 2011, a feeling of temporariness surrounded the whole affair.

The Sheffield band, led by Jarvis Cocker, were back together for a one-off reunion tour. They hadn’t made music together in a decade, and they didn’t have any plans to do so. But 15 years later, as Pulp returned to Melbourne for their largest ever show in the city, the feeling of temporariness had been replaced by one of generosity.

For all their perceived artiness, one thing that Pulp, and Cocker in particular, have always excelled at is delivering maximum entertainment value. And so the bulk of the Melbourne show was devoted to the most lustrous pearls from Pulp’s peak period in the mid 90s and early 00s.

It was, in the words of a friend, literally a flawless show. And thank god that Jarvis Cocker still lives to drape himself over the floor and give it all with his dancing.

Full review via the link in the comments. Pic by Ian Laidlaw.