October 23, 2000

New York Bowery Ballroom

Tonight's enthusiastic comeback show proves their music is timeless...

With The Go-Betweens just recently rousing themselves from a
11-year hibernation, it's understandable if you find yourself
squinting at Grant McLennan and Robert Forster onstage and
trying to remember which one is the romantic cynic with the wry
streak and which one is the wistful romantic with the realistic
streak. So for the record, the former is Forster - tall, professorial
air, resplendent in silly striped suit - and the latter is McLennan,
short, amiably reserved, and looking like he'd like to get back on
a surfboard at some point soon.

Not that these distinctions matter too much when the Aussies
get their two-halves-of-the-same-brain trick working, as the
resulting taut'n'smart guitar pop sounds as good now as it did back in 1989 or 1983. Tonight's enthusiastic show features about
an even split between tracks from their new album, The
Friends of Rachel Worth, and older favourites, with the
transitions mainly seamless. In particular, McLennan's new
songs, such as the deceptively sunny 'Going Blind' and 'The
Clock', sync up perfectly well with his jangle-classics like
'Streets of Your Town' and 'Bachelor Kisses'. And new bassist
Adele Pickvance sweetly fills in the female harmonies originally
provided by former members Amanda Brown and Lindy Morrison
(and, on the new album, by the multi-talented Janet Weiss).

In their last go-round on the music scene, in the late '80s, The
Go-Betweens had more than a decade's worth of critically
acclaimed material under their belt and had just signed to a
major label; a wider commercial breakthrough didn't seem
implausible. But that didn't happen, leading to their extended
hibernation and a few hit-or-miss solo efforts from both Foster
and McLennan. Now, of course, the reigning music scene has
ensured that commercial radio is as far away from The
Go-Betweens' literate pop as the Alaskan shoreline is from
Australia's balmy beaches.

And, ironically, Forster and McClennan seem invigorated by this
development. A new generation of indie fans has discovered
them, partly due to guest spots on ?Friends by members
of Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, and Pavement, but also because the
recent aggro developments in alternative rock make their old-school
pop songs sound quite fresh. One exception is Forster's odd
Patti Smith paean 'When She Sang About Angels', though it gets
underground-context points by rhyming Kurt Cobain with Tom
Verlaine. The duo seems a bit surprised by the cheerful
response of tonight's relatively young crowd; Forster apologises
for their lack of between-song banter - "We haven't had time to
practice any!". But cheesy jokes soon fade into the ether;
tonight's enthusiastic comeback show proves their music is
timeless.[/b]

Lisa Gidley