Live Review from Underground 79:
I’m on my 3rd can of Redbull in an attempt to fix this alcohol damaged body as THE THREE REPRESENTS (Pete, Frank and Uncle Jeffro) are setting up on stage. This trio (clever name by the way) have come ALL the way from Shenzhen. What do you do when you are a traveling band from Shenzhen? Bring all your friends of course! I was amazed at the support for “The3’sents” (thank me for that one later) These guys were taking a while to set up so I decided to scope out their bio on the fliers. “Shenzhen Rustic Americana” was what they put for their genre… colour me intrigued… Activity on stage soon came to a stand still and Chris B was up sporting a Cosmopolitan happy induced smile. She let us know that the trousers on her very person hailed from Shenzhen and thus the Shenz..Shenzhanites? Hailed her. Shortly after, my education on ‘Shenticana’ music began. Then it made sense, it’s like what most people associate as country music. It’s mellow, it bops along and it tells stories. Just like the first song the band played. “Written for a girl” we are told by the bassist singer. A few years ago I was in Singapore at their annual music festival “Baybeats”. They had an indie band called Brandston headlining the festival. The point of this useful bit of information, is that it sounds very much like The3sents. I picture myself driving on a rainy day, letting the songs distract me from the misery that is traffic. The lyrics aren’t embedded amongst metaphors. Instead it’s straight forward ala “playing my guitar getting drunk in the city.” Not all songs were about bitchy broads though. The fourth was about beer! Usually a worthy cause for celebration, but not for poor old me tonight. More Redbull needed. As I tried to find my wings, the band had started to come out of their shell a bit more. They were slowly beginning to loosen me. Even though it had taken them half a set, I was finding myself entertained by the guys. There was banter in between songs, (topics including under garments of ladies) cigarettes on stage and bonus synth parts. When I met the singer later he gave me a free CD of some of their songs that they were handing out. Great thinking. No one turns down free anything.
