Friday, 29 September 2017
The Babe Rainbow || Moth Club
When I first saw the short film Midnight Ramblers -
an incredible paean to the passion and glamour of rock groupies - last year, I
was instantly struck by the music. It was perfect. Breezy, retro-tinged,
dreamy, energetic - it fits exquisitely into the art film duo Wiissa's groupie
wonderland. Of course, I had to know who’d provided the soundtrack. Turns out
it was The Babe Rainbow, a groovy Aussie band boasting titles like Secret Enchanted Broccoli Forest and Peace Blossom Boogy. They sound like
drugs and sunshine, and are with Australia’s coolest indie record label,
Flightless Records, whose roster also boasts King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
Hearing from a colleague that they’re playing in Hackney in just a couple of
days, it seems like fate.
Moth Club has become one of my favourite venues over the past
year, with it’s Lynchian clash of dated pub furniture and gold glitter ceiling.
It’s not quite Byron Bay, but somehow it’s perfect for The Babe Rainbow. When I
arrive – early – there are pockets of young people in spangly silver jumpsuits
and gasoline faux fur congregating in corners, drinking warm beer from plastic
cups. I lean against the bar, alone, hoping one of these kids – so much cooler
than me – will be attracted to my aura and start talking to me. It doesn’t
happen, so I wait for the band.
I don’t have to hang around long. Within half an hour of my first
sip of spiced rum, lead singer and ‘troubadour of consciousness’ Angus Dowling
prances onto the tiny stage, clad in a green-and-black onesie. Following him
out are bass guitarist Dr. Elliot Love Wisdom and ‘guitarist with mystique’
(one for you, Almost Famous fans),
Kool-Breeze. They take a second to observe their audience. I’m at the front, in
an oversized Grateful Dead t-shirt tucked into a Seventies suede patchwork
mini. Next to me is a group of three excitable, long-haired boys, seventeen
perhaps, who’ve squeezed their way to the front and who seem equally as
enraptured by the hipster girls next to them as they do the band. I wonder if
we’re an appealing crowd.
The band’s first song is a new one, but it doesn’t matter. We’re already
grooving. The energy is instant, manic, and it’s emanating from the group and out
into the audience. You can feel the electricity passing through the crowd, from
the stage all the way to the stragglers in the back, like a dynamite
trail. By the time they get to Johny Says Stay Cool, six songs in,
we’re all thrusting back and forth, stamping on each other’s feet, smashing
into one another to Angus’ cries of ‘breathe in, breathe out’. The front of the
stage is a psychedelic mosh pit. BREATHE
IN – I collide exuberantly with the teenage boy next to me – BREATHE OUT – he steps on my toes – BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT! ‘You’ve got
to dance. You’ve just got to,’ the boy shouts into my ear. I nod.
Later, after the band perform a particularly trippy rendition of
Blondie’s Heart of Glass, they break
for twenty, giving me a chance to head outside for a smoke and a think. King
Gizzard, this band certainly is not. Something’s missing – they don’t seem to
have quite come into their own yet. But I’m into it. They’ve got a lot of
groove and charisma, and they’re causing everyone in there – me included – to lose
their minds a little bit. Who cares if they’re not quite polished yet? I spot
Angus, Dr Elliot and Kool-Breeze, a few feet away with some female fans. They
look like three blonde angels. Or cult leaders. Everyone’s playing it cool,
even the fans. I’m momentarily transfixed.
Back inside, I get myself another rum and cranberry. There’s a
girl next to me, shy, looking like she doesn’t want to be alone. Eye contact, earnest
smile. The bar maid’s counting my change - I ask the girl if she’s having a
good time. She nods with nervous enthusiasm. ‘I love them. There’s no one else
like The Babe Rainbow. Anywhere.’ Good soundbite. The barmaid hands me my rum
and my change, and the girl and I find an easy route to the front, next to the
trio of teenage boys again. The one in the yellow t-shirt – the foot-crusher –
smiles at us. We’re just in time. The funky intro of Love Forever swirls from the stage. Angus writhes like a snake
around the stage, perhaps a little self-consciously.
And then it’s over. The lights stay down, and I get a beer from
the bar, keen to stick around and lap up any last phantoms of psychedelia. I’m
a bit disappointed – what am I looking for? – when the room all but empties. Even
my new pal, the nervous girl, is out the door without as much as a parting
smile. To the station, then, I guess.
I wait at Hackney Wick. A flash of yellow and excitable babble –
it’s the boy and his friends. I wonder briefly how they discovered the Babe
Rainbow (poseurs?), but I don’t ask. I don’t speak to them at all. Outside of the
protective walls of the Moth Club, the normal London rules begin to apply again.
No speaking to strangers. No feelings, other than frustration. He points at me.
‘Hey, she’s got a Grateful Dead t-shirt!’
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