Interviews and Reviews

Todd Griffiths, Avid Grey,
Thersa Bitch, Plutonic Girl

Cosy Club, Grovesnor Hotel
Wednesday, 30 July 1997

Todd Griffiths broke an unwritten Cosy Club rule, by wandering on stage with Sebastian, his electric guitar. But other than that transgression, he produced a set which fitted in the Cosy Club mould, with some personal lyrics and subdued vocals, which reminded me of the Magnetic Fields, I don't know if was the vocals or the songs that made me think of Stephen Merrit. My only complaint, was I thought Todd played too many instrumentals, mainly because when he sung, the lyrics were beautiful. `Not exactly hip swinging' was the comment from erstwhile Xpress reviewer William Bowe situated at his normal position propped up on the bar. But, then again that is what the Cosy Club is all about, music that is different from the usual guitar pop that permeates the Grovesnor, Thursday to Sunday and far more intimate.

Having seen Avid Grey play their style of Glide/Buffalo Tom guitar pop a few times, I wondered how they would go having to rely on acoustic guitars. I was stunned, they put out an amazing sound, great vocals soared above the now subdued guitars and the quality of the songs shone through. And to finish it off, a violinist joined them for a couple of rather Go-Betweenish songs to finish with. A very pleasant surprise.

Theresa Bitch was the pseudonym of Peter Hardman of Effigy fame. He came out played a few Effigy tunes, old and new. Not all song were finished, Peter forgot the song, got bored or missed his effect pedals, so he just stopped and started the next song. I am glad he finished the final song a new Effigy song If Something Is Going To End', another dark and at times spiteful pop tune in a similar vein to `Small'. The surprise was the choice of covers, two Bob Dylan songs including `It Ain't Me Babe' complete with harmonica. An entertaining set, though at times a little frustrating with all those incomplete songs. It was good to see Peter play under quite different conditions, though it paled in comparison to the Effigy performances on the weekend.

First there was Apartment 99 with Simone, Lily and Todd, Todd takes his bass and leaves, Simone and Lily become Apartment 25. Carla brings her bass to Apartment 25 and they become Plutonic Girl. As most of the songs played by Plutonic Girl had been performed by Apartment 99/25, you not help but draw comparisons. Apartment 99 produced some delicate American influenced indie pop tunes, often relying on guitar texture to get through some numbers . Apartment 25, stripped these songs down and they became more beautiful and fragile, though sometimes a little too frail. Plutonic Girl is somewhere between the two, still beautiful songs, stripped back a little from their Apartment 99 roots and more robust than Apartment 25. The performance tonight was a little reserved, probably because it was only Carla's second gig. Still they showed plenty of promise, Plutonic Girl combined some of the best characteristic of Apartment 99 and Apartment 25 and are capable of big things. Though they were probably not hip moving enough for that scribe at the bar.

Overall, this was the best Cosy Club I had been to.

Review and photos by Nick Cowie (flashboy@cygnus.uwa.edu.au)
Bubblehead Magazine

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