LIVE: Gomez, Perth – 4 April, 2018

Shane | 15 April 2018 | Reply

LIVE: Gomez, Perth – 4 April, 2018
Metro City, Perth, Western Australia – Wednesday, 4 April, 2018
Reviewed by Brian Dunne

As your preferred music reviewer, I feel it’s time to break new ground. I am about to review a recent concert by the band Gomez without making any specific mention of any songs the band played. Freaky, I know, yet I have my reasons which will make themselves clear in this following piece. So let’s get into it, shall we?

To begin with, I’d like to give a big thumbs up to the designers of the appalling chasm that is Metro City. Well done boys, I’m sure that all the cocaine you consumed back when this eighties throwback snorted its way off your drawing boards must have been worth the lulz. So much chrome! So many unused and unsightly bits of triangular rigging hanging from the ceiling! So many sets of jagged stairs to interfere with sightlines from the upstairs balconies, themselves so narrow as to scarcely hold a single row of seats each! Hats off to you lads!

In terms of the night’s musical entertainment, if I may permit myself to use the word, first up came a solo set from Mister Anonymous, though I’m fairly sure he doesn’t bill himself under that name. He may as well. Mr. A shuffled onto the stage, no doubt a little daunted by the large crowd forming in the bowl below him. It’s a large stage and he was there all on his lonesome, I can imagine it might be a terrifying prospect.

Mister Anonymous, in his pants polluting terror, failed to introduce himself. Nor did he offer any between song banter of the sort which made such an impression when I saw Jim Bob Carter play a solo show recently. None of Mr. A’s repetoire made an impression on me or the crowd. Then he finished.

The bowl on the lower level of Metro City had by this time filled to capacity with humans to see Gomez, a band who I personally had been utterly unfamiliar with prior to seeing them this evening and, oddly enough, a band for whom I remain completely unmoved by, even after observing them for ninety minutes or so. The large number of people willing to pay a considerable amount of money to attend the performance suggests to me that perhaps it is I who missed out. Or perhaps not.

From the moment they hit the stage it became obvious that Gomez were formidable musicians. They went straight into what was doubtlessly one of their hits, by the roar of familiarity that rose from the large crowd. Then they went on to another hit, and another. None of which I knew, nor could I recall ever having heard via any medium, neither radio nor on Rage. Gomez simply passed me by.

Gomez played well, connected with their audience and appeared to be having a good time. If you are a fan, I’m sure you’d have dug them. Me? Not converted.