Triffids - Barbican, London, 9/4/2010

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 29 / 4 / 2010

intro

Little known in their original lifetime in the 1980's but now much acclaimed, Anthony Strutt at the Barbican in London sees the surviving member of Australian group the Triffids play a heartfelt, but over lengthy tribute to their former and late singer David McComb

Despite coming originally from Perth in Australia, the Triffids spent much of their career based in London. They pretty much played all the usual student type indie venues, but I only saw them once at about the time of their 1986 album 'Born Sandy Devotional', which many people rate as their masterpiece. I, however, prefer their 1989 last album 'The Black Swan', which was more commercial, but despite this the band, having met with little success, folded soon after. This wasn't really a Triffids gig or reformation, but entitled 'A Secret in the Shape of a Song' a celebration of The Triffids as their singer David McComb died back in 1999 and who have only started to become acknowledged in recent years. And what a celebration! This show lasted some three hours and a quarter without a break. It was a very enjoyable night but it was at the same time it was also overkill. The other original members only played together on the encore of 15 minutes. During the main set they drifted on and off off and guests appeared doing David's vocals. There was short set by the Blackeyed Susans, another band which David McComb was involved in to plug their new four disc box set, 'Reveal Yourself', and which was placed halfway through the show. The good thing about this was the fine songs, which were brilliantly played with great guests which included Dev Hynes from Lightspeed Champion, Tindersticks' Stu Staples, and Warren Ellis and Mick Harvey from the Bad Seeds, but no Nick Cave. Most of the original band sang and there was also a talk and slide show by Dave's brother and band mate Rob McComb. The bad thing was it just went on to long. People got bored and kept drifting in and out to use the toilet and buy drinks. A bad compere also told bad lines and was just a bit too cheesy. The songs, however, stood up, and the new best of and box set, both entitled 'Wide Open Road,' were sold and all the band came out and did a signing session afterwards and were very chatty and pleasant. This was a decent celebration of one of Australia's greatest bands and a group whose success has been long overdue and that frankly hardly anyone had heard of until recently.

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