It’s always good to escape the city limits every once and a while to explore other venues around Sydney. The Brass Monkey in Cronulla would be a prime example of this, which was tonight hosting yet another stellar David Graney performance. For those who don’t know, Graney is one of those Australian legends who plays nearly every day of the week all year around, and doesn’t every really attain the proper recognition he deserves. He’s probably aware of it as well, as it’s usually the case with some of the world’s greatest eccentric songwriters. Not many people care to listen to them. 

Starting the night was the oddly chosen Achoo Bless You, they were made up of a man and female duo who both exchanged instrument duties while more or less singing the entire time in the unison. With lyrics like “I’ve got you, if it wasn’t for you I’d probably drown”, you might on first impressions think they were dragging a whole lot of dread. Not the case, the duo played lighthearted country pop and incorporated harmonicas, a four-dollar toy piano and ukulele along the way. They finished up with a song called “Necessary Space” and as far as second ‘official’ performances go, this one was pretty good and they will probably be a stable diet on public radio soon enough. 

Next up was a slight line up change to the originally planned Tiffany Eckhardt, as she was sick with a flu. Instead, her song writing partner Dave Steel put on a solo performance of rusty 1930s blues. At times he sounded like Ry Cooder making the “Paris, Texas” soundtrack with tunes like “Vigilante Man” and “Come on Horse” which combined rawly sung country blues with stories that told of the Australian highway and outback. Key highlights were the slide guitar work, which was damn impressive to say the least. 

Soon enough, Graney, his wife Claire on drums, and Stu on bass took the stage. Kicking into “Bring Me My Liar” which was an almost spoken word prog-jazz jam, including highly amusing self-references. I couldn’t understand why there were only less than twenty people in the room, I guess playing so frequently can be slightly demanding. Graney still howls like an excited Lou Reed and a lazy Jonathan Richman but more accurately, it seems like the current Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds vocal style has a lot to answer for. The self-proclaimed and intended introductory tune “We Don’t Belong To Anybody’ probably summed them up the best. An entertaining display of sublime clean guitar workouts and falsetto chorus’s, Graney has some amazing guitar chords and progressions that should put him up there as one of the country’s most underrated. “A Man On The Make” was about a guy stuck in a nightclub full of hookers, sailors and dogfights for a week where “Night of the Wolverines” was a slice of pop-sing along heaven. It’s like sweet tropical jazz, gonzo journalism and Zappa-esque lyrical absurdities wrapped in a tight three piece. 

In my mind, all of the songs of the set are should be hits and that’s even including the new songs “Midnight to Dawn”, and “All Our Friends Were Stars” off the forthcoming record Super-Modified. They aren’t a novelty band as some might suggest, the brief bursts of white boy funk, tropicalla and reggae are merely just modes of transport for the song itself. Towards the end of the set, Graney cheekily yells out “Any requests”, I decided to shout out “Play Body Snatcher Blues”, so they did. There are benefits to playing at a small venue to a small crowd, and this is one of them. “Let’s Kill God Again” is the hit single Roxy Music should have written as their swansong before becoming shit towards the end of their career. They finished off with “Sell Out” off last years Knock Yourself Out, though I felt like they could have played an hour longer. Very few bands in either Australia or Internationally can claim the fame to writing so many hits. If Graney turns out to be the Australian equiliavant of Kevin Coyne, I am going to be mighty pissed. The man has still got it.