The Grates

Electric Eel Shock

Spaceland - July 5, 2006

Live Review by Adam McKibbin

After The Grates shared a bigger L.A. stage with The Go! Team and Smoosh [previously reviewed here]—a bill full of childlike glee and even actual children—folks would be forgiven for thinking they could anticipate the sorts of bands that would be playing alongside the Australian trio.  The Grates play a variety of punk that keeps the pogo-encouraging antics of The Ramones and replaces any sense of punk menace with lyrics like “My baby don’t know what he got / My baby…grr, grr!”  Indeed, charming singer Patience Hodgson has been likened in the past to Tigger.  Her band frequently gets traced to Be Your Own Pet and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and there’s also, on songs like “Feels Like Pain,” an appreciation for the golden days of grunge and riot-grrl rock.

Gravity Won’t Get You High gets its U.S. release later in the summer, and shows The Grates aren’t trying to be X band or Y band as much as they’re raiding Mommy’s closet and trying on everything that looks good to them, even it means some wild combinations of accessories.  A jaunty, fashionable rocker like “19 20 20” will be an easy fit on college/indie radio playlists and an easy recommendation for bloggers looking for two minutes of summertime electricity with the top down.  But then there are songs where Hodgson has a vocal quaver akin to Corin Tucker, and a few others where she sounds like a young Linda Perry.  This all has the odd effect of making the album sound more entertaining and unpredictable while it’s on the speakers, but also less memorable once it’s off.

The live show is a bird of a different feather, and is helped immeasurably by Hodgson’s charisma out front.  The Grates have hit it relatively big in their native Australia, and the corresponding confidence helps keep the energy level high even in front of a modestly sized crowd—like most bands who have found success in one corner of the world, they probably enjoy the challenge of converting audiences elsewhere.  Hodgson welcomes the crowd in, cajoles them, even at one point parts them down the middle “like Moses” and then performs a routine with a gymnastic ribbon in the middle of the floor.  It’s a pre-planned bit, obviously, but it still works.  Good-natured and crisply performed, the live set from The Grates is a treat.

Tokyo exports Electric Eel Shock are also good-natured, but that is about the only similarity with The Grates.  This was a strange pairing.  Born out of a love for Ozzy/Sabbath, Judas Priest, and even Ratt, the trio now writes songs that actually often prominently feature “Rock and roll!” in the lyrics.  Yes, EES are an unabashed novelty act, holding their flying V’s aloft, pointing at the crowd like Gene Simmons, and rampaging away with a batch of primitive and spirited songs cut from the same cloth.  Their drummer even goes vintage by stripping down and rocking the sock-on-the-cock look.  He also plays with four drumsticks.  All of this makes quite an impression, but they haven’t yet figured out a way to sustain the momentum through a whole set.