The Vasco Era - news

The Corner Hotel Review

July 8, 2007

THE VASCO ERA CORNER HOTEL

Author: Kristen Eckhardt

Publication: Inpress Magazine

Issue: 974, Wed 27 June 2007



The Vasco Era’s debut, Oh We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside is supposedly a concept album based on incidences the band have encountered in their hometown of Apollo Bay. Tonight’s punters, here for the album launch, certainly have something of the coast about the – young, tanned, beanie-wearing, boozed to the eyeballs and ready to rock the fuck out.



The beautiful man/child that is Sid O’Neil opens the set solo. Sporting a quaff, mutton-chops and natty suit jacket, his bluesy old man look seems incongruous to his fresh young face. But then he starts to sing and his raspy croon sounds like it belongs to a wise man 20 years his senior. His seemingly whisky soaked voice is both heartfelt and raw. Tonight’s crowd, however, aren’t here for melancholy; they know it’s only a matter of time before O’Neil’s croon becomes a growl and then the fun really begins.



And so it begins with When We Forgot To Ask Ourselves Why It Ever Came. Goodbye sensitive and emotional vocals, hello chunky guitar riffs, unrelenting drumming and snarling, infectious enthusiasm. Despite deriving their sound from the blues tradition, these guys perform with a punk rock sensibility. Their pure energy is captivating to watch. Michael Fitzgerald bangs on his kit like a man possessed – all wild eyes and gnashing teeth. Before long, the boozed up boys at the front of the stage are so pumped they start up some old school crowd surfing. O’Neil smiles wryly when one fan makes it on stage for a half hearted stage dive.



It’s time to slow things down with When We Tried To Party To Forget About It. This is O’Neil solo again and despite singing about getting too drunk and almost taking to that girl from The OC, his voice shows some real tenderness. Annoyingly the crowd surfers aren’t in any mood to settle down and this respite from rocking out is met with intrusive chatter.



This small glitch in crowd etiquette can be overlooked once the thumping rhythm of When You Went works the punters into a hero-worshipping frenzy. “We just feel lucky to have so many people here because we’re only little kids” says O’Neil to the adoring fans. Kids they might be, but this only makes their talent more astounding. O’Neil is especially charismatic throughout the whole set, switching effortlessly from playing a mean guitar to rapidly attacking a set of snare drums at the front of stage.



The fantastic, almost epic Honey Bee finishes the set and by this time O’Neil is jacketless, Ted O’Neil is down to a wife-beater singlet and Michael Fitzgerald is viscously expelling the last of his energy into his kit. It doesn’t matter that there’s no encore because the rock’n’roll that’s been packed into the last 50 minutes already has the punters calling this one of the top gigs of the year.

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