Tex, Don, Charlie - and Mick

Went down to Holy Grail in Civic last night (as opposed to the "launching place of a 1001 sleazy political rumours" one in Kingston) and caught Tex, Don and Charlie doing their thing last night.

Very happy to discover that they were being supported by long time Bad Seed Mick Harvey (who has a pretty respectable body of solo work in his own right). Mick put on a tidy performance, marred by the fact that a large proportion of the slack-jawed "where's Tex" punters talked through most of the set. Still, when he was belting it out, things were right with the world. I have to confess I didn't recognise many of his songs - though did appreciate his rendition of Serge Gainsbourg's Bonnie and Clyde.

Then it was time for TD&C - for a fairly casual outfit with 2 cds to their name over 12 years, they seemed to have a wealth of material to select from. Have to confess I haven't had much of a listen to their new album just yet ("All is forgiven") but was quite familiar with the last ("Sad but true" - from 93). They kicked off with a few tracks from Sad but true - standouts being Redheads, Gold cards and Louise (well, for me at least, some of my personal faves and you know you always like the songs you know).

Bunch of stuff from their new album after that - which was mostly great (one or two quieter moments maybe) including a Don Walker tune - Harry was a bad bugger - which was very cool and I'll definitely be looking for that one on the album - probably even play it on the show on Monday. Danielle was another highlight - originally a Cold Chisel song named Janelle - which you could see had the memories ticking over in at least a few members of the audience in a "Where the hell do I know this from...is it...is it a Chisel song?" kind a way.

After bailing to the backstage area (a.k.a the disabled toilet at stage right - ah that glamourous rock life) the boys came back out for a cracking encore. "The Singer of the song" was an astoundingly theatrical number letting Tex do the rock showman thing in all his glory with a very very Tom Waits kinda feel - even making use of the otherwise fairly out of place steep metal staircase to the dj booth that everyone was otherwise too polite to mention.

All this and I haven't even mentioned Charlie Owens great guitar licks (played a very cool but cheesy solo that Tex gave him some stick for in some of the great onstage banter that was yet another highlight of the show - you could really tell that the guys were having a good time just hanging out with each other and playing tunes) and the added bonus of Mick Harvey backing up the band on drums (and singing on Danielle)

Of course, a night out isn't the same without some great company and on that score I was v. lucky - thanks to the lovely Amanda, Fran and Pete for being cool and ace at the same time. Pix to come shortly.