Quivers (Comet Ping Pong, September 17, 2022)

I saw the Australian (Tasmania via Melbourne) quartet Quivers late last night at a small club in DC and really enjoyed it. Lovely jangly melancholy chiming guitar pop in the lineage of Go-Betweens and Lucksmiths. The set was heavy on their most recent full-length, Golden Doubt, and they also sang both the a-side and b-side of a new single, "If Only," whose flip side is a charming Lucinda Williams cover, "I Just Wanted to See You So Bad," sung by bassist Bella Quinlan. With an antipodean twang and two men and two women in the lineup, their obvious reference points are the Bats from New Zealand, along with Aussie forebears the Go-Betweens and Lucksmiths. Delightful people, too, with plenty of good humor expressed by singer-guitarist Sam Nicholson. And they have a whole R.E.M. cover record, but they didn't perform any songs from the album, but it's a good one. The covers of the Mike Mills leads, like "Texarkana," and the male/female duets like "Me in Honey," are particularly fine.

Openers were a stylistically discontiguous pair: New York-based Yours Are the Only Ears, somber singer-songwriter Susannah Cutler plucking on a guitar and singing ruminative lyrics backed by a violinist, and DC's Black Rails. As a guitar-based ensemble with clear derivations from power-pop and 90s indie rock, Black Rails might have fit more obviously on the Quivers bill, but the quiet grace of Yours Are the Only Ears has more resonance than Black Rails' overly familiar approach and unmemorable songwriting.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2022 08:44AM by zwirnm.

Michael,

thanks for turning me on to this band I had never heard about. I went straight to their Bandcamp page and really like what I hear. "You're Not Always on my Mind" is an absolute killer song. And there are not enough "Q" bands or bands from Tasmania...

Glad you liked it! Among the highlights this Saturday were "When It Breaks," "Gutters of Love," "Chinese Medicine," all from Golden Doubt, the Lucinda Williams cover, "If Only," and there was stuff from their first album, which I hadn't previously known.

Ha, their Bandcamp describes themselves as "life-damaged but hopeful jangle pop."

> there are not enough "Q" bands

I would have hoped someone would have named their band after the movie "Q" (1999) by now, but alas, that hasn't happened yet. Could have sworn there was, but nada.

I suspect naming a band "Q" is box-office poison these days, unless you're chasing a certain conspiracy-minded demographic.

Michael Toland Wrote:
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> I suspect naming a band "Q" is box-office poison
> these days, unless you're chasing a certain
> conspiracy-minded demographic.

So true. Hadn't thought about that.