As the frontman of The Drones, Gareth Liddiard is an
enigmatic explosion. But tonight, a sold out crowd had descended on the
Northcote Social Club to see the man in action armed only with his
acoustic guitar ... and a beer, of course.

Also found with just his Telecaster was Jacky Winter (or
Phil Gionfriddo from the Bowers and Dynamo) helping warm up the damp
Friday night revellers. He played songs picked from different parts of
his career: a song he wrote with Spencer P Jones titled ‘She’s Not
Kidding ‘Round’, the Dynamo number ‘Citizen Saint’ and “a song about
sex” called ‘Caught Your Smile’ by the Bowers. He also threw in some
covers: Johnny Cash’s ‘There You Go’ and even local act Mum Smokes’
‘1949’. Though my favourite for his set was a tune called ‘She Gets
Shy’, about loving someone who just doesn’t love you all that much in
return. His subtle but wirery songs were intriguing, often sombre,
intelligently written tales that had me spellbound.

Gareth Liddiard sat on his stool, lunched over his Maton, a
goofy smile on his face immediately lighting up the room. He opened
with the Drones number ‘Cold and Sober’, a recent song to creep us all
into his world. With the Drones, the songs are giant, bold statements,
rock and roll songs that lay everything on the table. But when Gareth
plays them with just a guitar, the songs are projected with an almost
violent brutality, the words feeling sharper, more poignant than ever
before. The vivid and sometimes grotesque imagery Gareth creates comes
to life, with loaded words spat out to slap you in the face. Performed
was my personal favourite ‘Oh My’, a song I heard performed by Gareth
before any Drones original rendering, ‘Your Actings Like the End of the
World’, Words from the Executioner to Alexander Pearce’, ‘I Don’t Ever
Want To Change’, the staple blistering rendition of ‘Jezebel’ and Shark
Fin Blues’. The heavy-heartedness of Gareth’s songs was luckily broken
up by boughts of drunken banter between Gareth and the audience, sort
of bizarre that the man performing with so much exhausting anger can
flick the switch and joke around so jovially.

Whether fronting the Drones, or by himself as he was tonight,
Gareth has this ability leave you  standing there completely
breathless, in awe of what you have just witnessed. He is an
outstanding, unrivalled songwriter and performer, with many
challengers, but no one within his league.