A lot of groups right now are trying very hard to sound like my Dad's record collection. Waiting for Guinness are the first band I can remember who sound like my Great Grandad's record collection.
The Show is an adventurous journey back in time, littered with squeeze-box trumpets, Gallic accordion and coalman violins throughout. There's Latin flavoured mariachi on opener 'Chanson pour Marie', a joyous rendition of 'El Cascabel' by Lorenzo Barcelata (born in 1898) and a Berlin cabaret freakout on the title track.
More recent influences and events aren''t entirely ignored though. 'An Urchin's Tale' has a ska feel to it and on 'George' they offer the US President some career advice (essentially: "Go and work in McDonalds").
With an ambitious project like this there's bound to be the odd blip and in the bar room drawl of 'Harry's Song' the impression of a drunken bore is a little too convincing. But when they bring the curtain down with 'The Ageing Drifter' (an instrumental that sounds like a battle weary cowboy riding into the sunset) you can forgive them anything.
How, in 2004, eight white kids from Sydney ended up sounding like this is a mystery. That they manage to retain a modern pop sensibility throughout is little short of amazing.
If Waiting for Guinness were waiting for Guinness they'd spend the time watching The Triplets of Belle Ville.
By Andy McLean. Copyright held by author.
The Show is available through Vitamin Records.
First published in The Brag, Sydney, 2004.
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