Snout / Youth Group / Cunningham, The Healer, Brisbane
1st September 2000
by Peta Hayes

The Healer fills quickly and it isn’t hard to understand why. It’s a great venue and with tonight’s triple bill to-boot, who wouldn’t be excited?The show opens with local lads Cunningham. The only way to describe their sound is ‘slacker pop’. Now before you go getting all cranky with that tag, this is a good thing. If you haven’t seen these guys before, think of bands like Pavement and Weezer… then you’ll come up with Cunningham. They seem quite comfortable on the small stage, churning out the songs, reminding us at every chance they get that they have a new CD coming out next month.It’s a really enjoyable set, filled with busway dedications and explanations about how difficult it is to fade a song out when you’re playing live. Quite the interesting and entertaining lads. All the while, Ross from Snout is sitting on the sidelines watching with intensity – if that isn’t a sign that these guys are good, I don’t know what is.Sydney’s Youth Group are great to watch, but they’ll have to put on an exceptional show to out-do their last one here. Hopefully, we’ll get another Kylie Minogue cover, maybe ‘I’ve Got To Be Certain’ this time instead of ‘I Should Be So Lucky’.It’s a great set tonight, with heaps of energy and enthusiasm. There’s nothing twee or light-indie about these guys: Youth Group always play it loud and this set is no exception. In fact, every time we see them, they’re sounding better.With its great melody and singalong chorus, their latest single ‘Happiness’ Border’ should be all over the radio. Live, it’s a sweet slice from their tasty pop cake, joining a selection of other tracks which we’ll soon be hearing on an album. All this makes for one of the better gigs we’ve seen Youth Group play, even with no Kylie songs.Finally Snout are onstage. Launching their new EP Stockinged Feet Grooves: Authentic Wildbeat Sounds, these guys sound like they know what they’re doing, but are ready for anything. Ross reminds me a little of Tim Rogers of You Am I with his stage presence –within minutes he has the punters eating out of his hand and dancing around excitedly.A few technical glitches kill the vibe somewhat and even the noise of the room can be heard over them at times, which is a little disappointing. But the appearance of old Snout favourites like ‘Hey Hey Hey’ and ‘Cromagnon Man’ in their set makes up for all of this. Youth Group join the band on stage for the last song, a great touch showing that bands playing together really can become good mates. Male bonding is such a beautiful thing.

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