The Gin Club

I’ve been looking forward to catching up with the Gin Club since returning to Australia after a year overseas. It's also been a while between drinks at the Zoo and I am flooded by a wash of good memories as I ascend the stairs of Brisbane's premiere sticky floor. It's a very welcome return as my feet peel and slap against the woodwork I am welcomed by the desolate hoodoo vibe of Melbourne’s Jimmy Stewart (of Clinkerfield) as he begins to work his mojo over the first stragglers to come in out of Fortitude Valley’s windswept streets. Swigging intermittently from a hip flask Stewart caterwauls his way through strangled gypsy folk and brooding country that suggests Townes Van Zandt by way of Tom Waits in all his crusted glory. Stewart is an impressive talent whose chiming guitar and arresting vocal performance conjure a phantom band to accompany him and closes with a version of If I Only Had A Brain from the Wizard of Oz that puts Jamie Callum to shame.

Tim Steward (ex-Screamfeeder) and band follow Stewart, taking the Zoo stage to a 1/2 full venue. My initial impression is that Steward can’t help but come off second best to Stewart's engaging performance but his band soon wrest the crowd's attention away from their conversations and pool game with a drum thumping rocker that causes the Zoo PA's ugly bottom end to balloon out of control. Any notion that Steward is plying vanilla alterna-rock are quickly dispelled as the band launch into a three way harmonium duel and constantly trade places layering each song with new combinations of instruments and harmonies. Steward’s vocals are drowned out by the band and crowd for most of the set but snap into focus as the room fills up. Before leaving the stage Steward praiss Gin Club as “without a doubt the best band in Brisbane” and the inter-generational love-in vibe is maintained by the Gin Club's Ben Salter who crows "I have been going to see Tim Steward ever since I could legally drink … it's a privelege to have him supporting us”.

The Gin Club tribe wander unassumingly onstage and with no more than a “G’day” begin their first set. Opening softly the band then come in strong with a full-band country stomp that gets the crowd roaring along with the band by their third song. I remember the Gin Club as a swaggering stagering free-for-all but the band on stage tonight comes across as a tightly honed unite, despite trademark instrument changes (and probably prodigious backstage alcohol consumption). There are still the occasional moment where it all falls to shit - resulting at one point in a potentially dismembered Cello - but for the most part this is a band on top of their form.

Threatening to drown under the weight of their instruments - I picked banjo; ukulele; harmonica; guitar; piano; bass; drums; accordion; mandolin; maracas; bells; organ; cowbell; tambourine; two cello's; trumpet; trombone; two keyboards and an egg shaker) the full band wraps up quickly and most of the first set is a stripped back affair visiting material from the bands new album Junk. The lack of a consistent 'frontman' doesn't hold the band back as their schizophrenic musical and stage presence blithely channel the likes of Robert Forster, Tim Rogers, Robbie Robertson and Shane McGowan. The groups second set continues to showcase the groups prolific songwriting talent as the full band returns to the stage, bobbing and swaying raucously as an appreciative home crowd cheers them on. The Gin Club will be coming to a venue near you shortly – make sure you get out and see them when they do.

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