Review: The First Third & Charles Jenkins

The Gov – Friday 19 July 2019 
Words & Photo’s Geoff Jenke

Four bands for around $20 is great value. When you get acts such as the ones that played this evening it is even greater value. It’s a pity Adelaide music audience doesn’t get behind these shows. The performances by these acts was far superior to the performance the Adelaide Crows put on at Adelaide Oval the same evening.

First up were The Avant Gardeners, a band I have to admit I didn’t know. They had an intricate guitar sound, helped out by 4 guitarists on stage plus a bass player all looking like a motley collection of music rejects (except the lovely lady playing guitar). However, the songs were anything but a motley collection. I don’t know the title of the songs but they sounded great, especially the final song Wheel of Fortune(?) which had a late 70’s Eddie and the Hot Rods feel to it.

Next up were The High Beamersand someone had been listening to Neil Young I feel, especially the first half of the set. That is not a bad thing as Neil Young is one of my favourite artists. Tom Spallon on lead guitar (and wearing a Guantanamo Bay reject prison suit) was brilliant on 12 string guitar, jangling out wonderful original songs. Well 11 strings after the first couple of songs. The acoustic guitar came out mid-way and the show went to a George Harrison era feel, again not a bad thing. I will certainly be looking out for them in the future.

Charles Jenkinsis a fine performer and tonight was no exception. He played solo this evening and was obviously here just to have fun. After the first song he asked the audience for requests and when Rolling in to Houstonwas yelled out Charles replied “I am not going to play that…. Yet”. Songs about the Melbourne Markets (“Adelaide Market is a million times better”) and Mildura showed what a delightful story teller Charles is with his songs. This was backed up by a song/story about a member of the Kelly Gang, Steve Hart, being a cross dresser. Then he gave us Elvis’s 43^rdmovie song, Charles channelling Elvis to perfection. He finally did Rolling into Houston, telling us it is easy to write songs, “just watch SBS with a guitar in hand and sing along with the sub titles”.’ Finishing with Pray My Dear Daughter, his was a show of perfection. It’s just a pity the half of the audience around the back and bar never bothered to listen to Charles, drowning him out with their incessant chatter during the quieter moments. 

What drew me to The First Third was that lead singer Vic Conrad was former singer with the Adelaide band The Garden Path. The Garden Path should have been huge, but rock ‘n’ roll is a cruel mistress. It’s been over 15 years since the First Thirds debut album, but we finally have a second album, called 2^ndAlbum.

They kicked off with Turn Me Loose, the opening track from the new album and it was soon apparent there was still a wonderful Garden Path influence. Mr Vfrom the debut album followed, sounding a bit like a Kinks outtake and for the rest of the evening we got a mixture of short sharp quirky songs from both albums.  Vic alternated between guitar and keyboards during the set and also allowing guitarist Keith Davis to take lead on several songs. Theband even bought out a couple of violin players at the end to add to the already powerful sound.

Vic bought out members from all the bands for a “All Star Party Song” finale. Charles Perkins sang What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understandingbefore they played Outlaw Blues, a song, according to Vic, “a blues in the key of E with indiscriminate lyrics). All members of the All-Star band had their moment to shine during the song, in fact at one stage it looked like they didn’t know how to end the song.

A few “thank you’s” from Vic and the evening was over.

One of the most enjoyable evening of music I have attended in a long long time. And they were all South Australian artists. (Ok Charles Jenkins was born in Mildura but he learnt his craft in Adelaide)

I hope there are more of these evenings soon.