Weirdsville

If you were to travel to Belgrave by train, it's all of 36 stations from the city. It's only 16 for me and I find that a pain commuting, so I can't imagine anyone wishing to do 36 on a daily basis. The reason for travelling east on Wednesday (by car) was to see the winner of the best Blues and Roots band from this year's Aria awards -The Audreys. The venue was Ruby's Bar and Lounge which according to their own site is located in Weirdsville, proclaiming to be "an oasis in a desert of bogans." It's a trek out of the way, but if you look at their list of bands that have played there, they seem to attract an impressive lineup. In hindsight, it only took 10 minutes longer to get there than heading into the city, however I did pull over at one time as I thought I went too far as the forests began to close in.

Once I found the place there were no problems with parking, while the line extended to just one and I got the now more familiar sheepish grin after receiving my id back as more door staff realise I'm about 5 years older than them. The venue has a stage in the corner with a couple of couches against walls, with tables and chairs scattered throughout. When I arrived Liam Gerner was enthusiastically singing as support and produced quite a good set. The highlight being the scurrying away of some females sitting about 5 metres from the stage, as a unintended burst of saliva descended toward them. The crowd was noticeably young and predominately female, which wasn't lost on my companions as I was continually egged on to display my 'moves'. Thankfully as I was driving there was only limited drinking and besides my 'moves' cover half a postage stamp and would only result in embarrassment.

A couch was secured no more than a metre from the stage and ensured there were no sore knees or feet on this night. I've never ventured that close to the stage and it gave a different perspective to the show. There's no back entrance to the stage, so the band is forced to navigate through the crowd which also makes the encores a little awkward. I hadn't heard too much of The Audreys prior to getting tickets and I'd had the album for about 2 weeks. While there were a few songs that did grab me, I couldn't seem to get fully into it.

One thing that stood out was the amazing voice of Tashaa Coates. It's similar to Sarah McLachlan's with the song of the night being their cover of "Don't Change" by INXS, which actually sounded better than the album version. In addition to standard instruments, the melodica, harmonica, ukulele, reso-phonic, banjo, violin, lap steel guitar and double bass were used which gave a nice mixture of sounds throughout.

"You & Steve McQueen", "Oh Honey", "Nothing Wrong With Me", "Pale Dress", "Banjo and Violin" and a Dolly Parton (*shudder*) cover were other highlights from the night and I was able to appreciate the banjo for more than something played only by slack jawed hillbillies wearing straw hats. The violin, ukulele and harmonica were other instruments that really made songs stand apart from their album equivalents. In all, fantastic songs and really captivating vocals.

I did manage to double up the next night to see them at the Corner Hotel and while the set was identical, the music was just as good. Interestingly enough it was at the Corner where parts of the audience were yabbing away during the set. (I'm still not sure why people do that...) See them if you get a chance, if only to see a ukulele being played.