Review: The Lurkers and Big Erle

Who: The Lurkers and Big Erle
Where: Harold Park Hotel, Glebe
When: 14/12/08

A four-letter word starting with F and ending in K was once used to describe a very common form of merrymaking. Some time during the twentieth century, it was deemed uncouth by polite society while at the same time being fetishised by anorak-clad enthusiasts. Despite a brief period of mainstream acceptance in the free-love 60s, the status quo has been restored, and it is now more widely known under the euphemism “blues and roots” (give or take the blues).

I am of course talking about “folk”, and it was heartening to see a pair of young bands taking the middle-road and adopting the moniker without an overdose of shame or reverence.

The Lurkerswere the first band to take the stage, and a sarcastic expression crept across the face of banjo-player Mithra Cox as she called their first tune.

 ”Seeing we’re a folk band, we thought we ought to play a folk song for you,” her half-smile disappearing as soon as the band launched into a version of American traditional ‘Cindy Cindy’.  Musically, the Lurkers are pretty much a straight-ahead bluegrass band with all the trimmings: Cox uses the Scruggs-style three-finger picking technique, Nick Mueller plays a solid upright bass, and Martin Cubby plays an acoustic guitar sporting a sticker that reads “This Machine Kills Fascists”. 

Okay, so maybe not entirely straight-ahead-while the band’s set included a few more country and bluegrass staples (including a notably scorching take on Merle Travis’s ‘Nine Pound Hammer’), the Lurkers are primarily about using bluegrass as a vehicle for their archly left-wing political views.  This unlikely blend goes down surprisingly smoothly, thanks largely to the three-piece’s delivery; each member takes turns on lead vocals with the others providing authentic bluegrass close harmonies. 

The fact that band sticks to black humour rather than sanctimonious preaching also helps, with lyrics like “it could’ve been better and it could be worse / knocking on the coffin in the climate change hearse.” From this tune and other originals including ‘DIY Armageddon’ and ‘Environmental Evangelism Makes No Friends’, it’s clear that the band members don’t take themselves overly seriously. This lets them get away with stunts like making ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ an indictment of racism in Camden Town and a reappropriation of Les Rice’s ‘The Banks Are Made of Marble’. If only they hadn’t pushed too far with a clumsy Dylan cover-I couldn’t help feeling that ‘The Climate Is a-Changing’ would have been more at home in a second-rate university revue show.

Minor misstep aside, the Lurkers were one of the most enjoyable acts I’ve seen for some time. Even if left-wing politics aren’t exactly your thing, this shouldn’t deter you from checking them out, as even the biggest cigar-chomping capitalist would appreciate that the group plays and sings with fervour that few bands can muster.

The other band featured was Big Erle, a self-procliamed bluesy funky rootsy hybrid from Woollongong. The major draw here was frontman Simon Leamon, possessed of a flashy resonator guitar technique and a powerful baritone voice that was only sullied by a fake American accent that crept in and out of both his vocals and between-song banter. Leamon was backed by a very competent but slightly disinterested electric bassist and drummer, giving an overall sound of a bluesier and less-gimmicky Xavier Rudd.

Starting off with some flashy slide guitar work, Leamon also played a short solo set (probably the highlight of Big Erle’s offerings) before being rejoined by his rhythm section and a young trumpet player. The horn playing was unfortunately more-or-less superfluous, alternating between doubling the vocal lines and running up and down blues scales, but it was nevertheless nice to see some experimentation with the standard folk format.

Both bands will be playing at the Illawarra Folk Festival in mid-January, along with a plethora of other acts. I’m told that anoraks are strictly optional.

Photos courtesy of Emiko Kinoshita