Dateline at The Wine Cellar: Concert Review, June 26, 2021

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Dateline packed The Wine Cellar with a set of groovy, dreamy nostalgia and playfully heavy grunge, with phenomenal support from Benjamin Locke and Treenurse.

With any gig at The Wine Cellar, or its slightly grimier, stickier cousin, Whammy Bar, there’s a high chance that arriving as early as possible will reward you with an introduction to non-headline local acts that deserve your attention.

Last night, instead of that experience, the scattered few who made it to see Benjamin Locke and Treenurse before Dateline were rewarded with two performances that not only demanded attention, but jointly made me wish the gig were an hour longer.

Benjamin Locke
Benjamin Locke
Benjamin Locke

Opening with nothing more than an electric guitar, and balanced on a precariously built stool under soft stage lights, Benjamin Locke welcomed the handful of early attendees with the kind of gracious humility you’d expect from a friend performing in the intimacy of their bedroom for the first time.

Authentically charming and lyrically captivating, Locke opened with Interview, to which I hastily wrote down ‘That Voice…’ before falling into the rich, pensive melancholy of its melody. Balancing simple melodies with his low, resonating voice, Locke moved into Dreamer, drawing comparisons to the slower side of Elliott Smith and the softer side of Jeff Buckley.

But it was Be With Yourself and Lightening To Me that tore that away, instead showing the crowd a young, local version of Leonard Cohen in the reserved depth and aching felt throughout his lyrics and vocal talents.

Closing with the late-night-early-morning sound of Solid Gold and Be Your Man, it would be unbalanced to say that the set didn’t include more than a few moments of Locke double-starting a song to find his vocal key. But, where these moments would usually seem jarring, they instead felt genuine, as though we weren’t denied a fluid set, but instead given an insight into the process, the music, and the musician himself.

Treenurse
Treenurse
Treenurse

With Locke clearing the stage and the brief intermission giving time for another two handfuls of people to merge into the crowd, Treenurse took to the stage and informed the room that they were, unfortunately, missing their bassist for the evening.

Seeing this duo – as I’ll now refer to them – for the first time, I couldn’t tell you what they would sound like with the admittedly unnecessary addition of an extra band member, as the thought was instantly removed from my mind from the opening, pounding drumbeat of Burden.

Infectious with their shared energy, guitarist and vocalist Lucy Campbell and Brayden Jeffrey brought an energy I haven’t seen since watching The White Stripes live at The St James nearly 20 years ago, with their opening number capturing the raw, punchy sound of Hotel Yorba.

Picking my jaw off the floor between my constantly tapping feet, the pair moved into the manically sweet Elephant Friends and lyrically cutting Cathartic Rant, chatting with the crowd between songs in such an authentically charming way that shows why these two are so undeniably magnetic making music.

Playful, joyous, and captivating in their performance, Campbell’s sharp vocal drawl matched with Jeffrey’s unapologetically powerful drumming made Pyjamas and Feet one long display of shared stage presence and pure, raw talent. You can listen to their Live recording of a similar setlist from two years ago, but just know that it does little justice to what these two accomplished last night for some twenty fortunate people.

Dateline
Dateline
Dateline

With the stage stripped back for the headline act, Dateline mingled amongst the crowd for a few minutes as the room quickly filled, packing together in anticipation.

Dateline, in all the member-lineup-variations I’ve seen them in, have never failed to impress me, with their filthy sweet grunge and gorgeously dreamy ‘50s vocal harmonies being a standout from Whammyfest nearly two years ago that I’ll take any chance to see evolve.

Last night was no exception, with the lineup of Katie Everingham, Callum Devlin, Priya Sami and Ruby Walsh joined by Benjamin Locke on background percussion, opening with Walsh’s grimy, grungy and irresistible bass through If You Want It and Love Hertz and accentuated by the sharp, distorted guitar solos of Devlin.

The group diverged from the heavier, growling opening numbers into the sweet-stab of Such A Bitch, showing that the band has perfected their sound to create a seamless comparison between their recorded work and live performances, before overlapping beautifully brutal guitar and those guttural, slow-groove basslines in Please Knock Me Out and Do It Right.

Taking a moment to chat with the crowd, Everingham and Sami exchanged playful jests with each other and displayed more of that same genuine authenticity and charisma the crowd had seen in the previous acts, briefly discussing dramatic lyrics (“The Region Took My Heart Away / I Miss It Every Single Day – I only moved to Hastings…) before diving into the beautiful melancholy of Love Die.

Closing the set with headline-release Dumb For My Age, and Don’t Know (What To Do With Me), the group powered through the rhythmic, rolling drums and raw distorted guitar of their new release before building overlapping chaos with their instrument to leave the room echoing the sound of feedback guitar and sweet harmonies of their final number.

Leaving the crowd chanting for an encore which “[couldn’t] happen because we’ve played all the songs we have”, it’s always such a pleasure to see a band continue to evolve and nurture their sound with such bold confidence and surety. With the company they keep, I have little doubt we’ll be seeing all of these performers again soon, and I’m unashamed to say I’ll be the first to jump at the chance to get there early and soak as much of it in as I can.

Oxford Lamoureaux

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Benjamin Locke Setlist

Interview
Dreamer
Be With Yourself
Lightening To Me
Solid Gold
Be Your Man

Treenurse Setlist

Burden
Elephant Friends
Leftover Residue
Cathartic Rant
Feet
Pyjamas
Going To Sleep
Graveyard

Dateline Setlist

If You Want It
Love Hertz
Little Less
Such A Bitch
Please Knock Me Out
Do It Right
Love Die
Dumb For My Age
Don’t Know (What To Do With Me)

Oxford Lamoureaux
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