Concert Review: Sin City at Freida Margolis, 30 April 2021

Sin City. You walk into the butcher shop and it’s transformed like the Tardis into a Gilded Palace of Sin, and these two wandering Kiwi prodigal sons have returned after travelling all over the World and they are about to lay down what they describe as Dad Rock.

Nick Armstrong and Jack Beesley are the Alicante Outlaws who are performing tonight in a special set and calling themselves Sin City. Have recently returned from Spain and earned the Outlaw handle there.  With Western Nudie-style shirts and tassels they resemble the Flying Burrito’s as pictured on the cover of that classic album.

Not that long ago they were members of the Cavemen. Rock’n’Roll thrash and what sounds like retro and elemental. Aucklanders who eventually set up shop in London.

The small local bar is full and packing them in still, just before the music starts. For many years this was my regular organic butcher shop. It was small then, but somehow through some weird time-space multiverse inversion shit it seems bigger than it actually is. There are still meat hooks and bone-white tiles on the walls. Imagine the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Picture the scene of a raucous bar and some Outlaw Country outfit playing to a bunch of weird inbred locals. Freida Margolis is the perfect setting.

They are playing all their own material.

Rhinestone Queen kicks off, and it’s a surly Country tune, a bit Cow Punk but with nice melodic flourish.

Drunk and Broken-Hearted Man follows with some Honky-Tonk piano and it’s as funny and maudlin as the title suggests.

Possibly half a dozen songs have the same sound and inspiration as the Rolling Stones Exile on Main Street and Barbara is the first. Blues and Country mixed in bar-room style, with a loose but tight feel. The refrain at the end is a nod to the Regents and the Beach Boys.

Reel You In is similar. She’s Got No Heart and they manage a bit of Gospel in the Country Blues, similar in intent and vocal style to Jagger when the does something like Let It Loose or Shine a Light.

Drinking Her Off My Mind is slower and more straight-up Country and the phrasing is more Gram Parsons. Great piano parts from Armstrong on those three and he’s channeling a bit of Nicky Hopkins.

Don’t take the weird locals description too much to heart. They are mostly Boomers and yer Grey Lynn Ponsonby neighbourhood letting their hair down after work. The sound could be a bit beefier with better definition but the guys cut through this with an enthusiastic performance. Young women attempt to dance in the very limited floor space. People squeeze past the band to get to the bar and you better be careful they don’t knock the capo off the guitar.

High Noon they say is their hit? Lower register Cowboy guitar licks and charges along like a barn-storming Tom Petty.

Belly of the Beast and two guitars put a bit of dirt and grunge to sound like the Cramps. Thirteen days and I look like hell.

Oh Maria has a nice Latin American, Spanish backing rhythm. Classy Pop in the sense of a Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman classic.

They told me prior to the show that are looking for that Bruce Springsteen and Willy Deville sound and Hold On Little Girl is introduced as just that. Beautiful Country Soul. I’ve got the radio on and I’m feeling just fine.

Hooked On You they call a novelty number. About being down at Lazy Joe’s and written in a similar style to Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and a Coaster’s novelty story song.

Do the Dirt Armstrong dedicates to his mother. It’s a tough Urban Blues which jumps and barks a bit like Lennon and McCartney’s Hey Bulldog.

I particularly like the way they sing in a slightly cynical, not-so-serious but also soulful Roots Country fashion, in the way Jagger does. Again, Things I Left Behind has that Exiles feel. They sing arrlways on mah maarnd. Nice ringing Blues guitar licks.

They power through close to twenty songs in just over an hour. They can overcome a mediocre sound system. Have obviously seen rowdier places than this one and can cut through. Their songs have a great sense of familiarity but they sound fresh.

Is this Dad Rock? Maybe it is. They come back to do a storming version of Waylon Jenning’s Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way? Wonderful and certainly not.

Rev Orange Peel