As far as CD launches go, Gyroscope’s was a little anorexic in the hype department.

This could’ve had something to do with Sound Shattering Sound hitting the shelves weeks earlier or the pseudo-launch the guys headlined at the Monkey Bar last month for the WAMi Weekender. Gyroscope could actually be found packing out the Annandale Hotel in Sydney around the time the album officially saw the light of day, which may say something of the band’s interest. Either way the hometown crowd turned it on for the belated launch of what is a killer debut album by anyone’s standards.

Dragged out of the shadows for a favour, the needlessly underground Ten Speed Racer had the opening slot honours and bugger me dead if they didn’t tear the odd head clean from the shoulder with a raw display of mid-paced, gritty garage rock. There’s so much attitude pouring off the stage from this band it’s not funny, yet the melody is the one thing that sticks in your mind. Good band this one although a little differentiation in song structure wouldn’t hurt.

Gyroscope invited Sydney’s Staying At Home over for the launch, but to be honest they should have left them there. This trio was painfully boring for most of their set and only moderately interesting for the other parts. Colourless songs, prosaic stage presence and a virtually non-existent crowd interest had many wishing they’d stayed at home in front of the heater. It’s not that they were totally devoid of good moments, just stacked up against Gyro and even Ten Speed, (granted TSR fry a different style of fish) they were dangerously outclassed. Clearly they should have opened.

There are a few reasons why Gyroscope is fast becoming one of the most impressive acts in WA. Naturally, the songs are good and the stage show is always vivacious (occasionally to the detriment of the live sound), but the success of Gyroscope stems in part from the band operating well out on its own limb. Since The Critics have gone AWOL, no other band in Perth come close to them. The Birdys, Fashions, Jacksons and Joes are all arguably operating within the same genre and while competition hasn’t hurt those bands, Gyroscope has a niche market and is running off into the sunset with it.

The live show is something well worth a rave. Beginning with the opening track to the new album, Confidence In Confidentiality opened a set that went off like a kitten in a cray pot from the word go. On through Doctor Doctor, the brilliant Midnight Express, Fire Away, Driving For The Storm and new gems Hollow Like Cheyenne and Are You Getting Any Better?, Gyroscope seemed poised, confident and supremely national.

Ending things with the older, I’ve Been Struck By Lightening Once… and without an encore, the reaction from the 500-strong crowd is all the testimony needed to understand the new-found maturity of Gyroscope. This is what hard work and dedication does to a band.

BRETT LADHAMS.

Posted on July 14, 2004 11:09 PM

© Xpress Magazine