Skipping Girl Vinegar (live)

Performance: Higher Ground, Adelaide
Website: myspace.com/skippinggirlvinegar

Sometime around the end of 2009 to the start of 2010, I remember discovering Skipping Girl Vinegar‘s debut single “One Chance” and sharing the video via facebook with various friends who were at the time producing alternative folk in a similar vein with a caption something along the lines of “You should try and play a show with these guys if you head to Melbourne!”. At that point, “One Chance” was already almost 2 years old and at its peak had already managed to turn the heads of street press nationwide as well as those at our national youth broadcaster Triple J. But since then the single has continued its ascending course until earlier this year the song propelled Skipping Girl Vinegar into the finals of the International Songwriting Competition.

The song itself is brilliant and powerful, but when I first discovered the track, what was most exciting for me was the promise and potential the song represented in Skipping Girl Vinegar. Whilst I completely forgot about SGV for a long time, the Melbourne-based 5 piece went on slowly building their audience, working hard, honing their craft and resisting the urge to stray from their independent ways and into the arms of a record label- and now with their second album Keep Calm, Carry The Monkey it seems SGV are realizing their potential on the national platform.

Supporting SGV on their Adelaide leg was local folk-pop group Mountbatten who have become mainstays of the local venue circuit in recent months. This show was probably their best support slot since opening for Holly Throsby earlier in the year. Unfortunately for me, a lying facebook event page ensured I arrived at Higher Ground slightly too late to catch their set, but thankfully just in time to see the second support for the night; Kieran Ryan- whom you might recognize as one half of the Melbourne-based family affair Kid Sam. Ryan’s careful and subdued brand of finger-picked acoustic song went down well with a mostly seated audience. His subtle and smooth trialing vibrato injects a lovely touch of timeless class to his performance, which was unfortunately rather short in length. Ryan’s set closed strongly, and it wasn’t long before the idle hum of an anticipating audience turned to Skipping Girl Vinegar‘s intro- a slowly growing ambiance of singing birds and creaking gates, which drifted its way around the small venue from the PA.

Higher Ground is a venue that typifies Adelaide in many ways. It is by no means perfect, but for the most part, it serves its purpose. Located in the basement of what was the old Night-Train complex on Light Square, the retrofitted basement is littered with sight-obstructing columns and is serviced by a single toilet which is located upstairs in the adjoining cafe. These imperfections are part of its charm, and its industrial bleakness has been superficially appropriated into a comfortable, warm space for performers and audiences to come together.

The space suited Skipping Girl Vinegar perfectly, who in trademark fashion dressed their set with quirky and aesthetically pleasing old-timey objects, pretty glowing things, and a series of pagan-like visual homages to bird-life. Skipping Girl Vinegar may be a little bit older than your garden variety hyped indie-pop band, but their experience is completely reflected in their songwriting. Pop music is a funny thing. There’s really not a great deal of difference between mediocre pop music and astounding pop music. Everyone can tell the difference, but very few writers are blessed with the inherent inspiration or knowledge that’s required to cross the line from one to the other. The main difference I notice when distinguishing one from the other is subtle but profound. I find that when listening to great pop songs I don’t so much notice or dwell upon the arrangement, where as when I listen to many up and coming and novice writers I find myself questioning the choices of the writer and subconsciously identifying and flagging parts that don’t quite ring true.

Skipping Girl Vinegar, through their years of experience, seem to have learned the secret to writing, and certainly the skill of suitably arranging great pop songs. I think they’re at their best when frolicking on the more uplifting and bright end of the spectrum. Probably their best songwriting device is that of the sing-along chorus, which at the very least had the room singing under their breath for a lot of the set. Personally, this had a lot to do with the genuinely likable personality of their front-man. The SGV sound is itself somewhat of a balancing act. I’ve already mentioned its compositional suitability, and the harmonies between both male vocalists apply another coat of polish- but there’s also an instrumental rawness that stems from their use of battered instruments and recycled and found objects, which brings something else entirely to the table, and probably contributed to the coining of the term “Hobo-Pop” in classifying their own sound. Playing all the crowd favorites from their new release Keep Calm, Carry The Monkey, including “Chase The Sun”, “You Can”, and my personal favorite “Here She Comes” and finishing with a “One Chance” induced ruckus- SGV are the latest act to prove to the rest of the fringe-hyped, Triple J-supported acts of this nation and their managers that the persistent decisions to not include Adelaide dates in national tours are increasingly ill-advised and perplexing.

From a management perspective, Skipping Girl Vinegar are doing all the right things. They’re making great quality Australian music and packaging it in a way that’s thoughtful, innovative, desirable and collectible. They’re publicizing their tours and their new album very well, engaging with their fans effectively (the faux handwritten note and free fridge-magnet for those on their mailing list was a nice touch), they’ve made themselves very easy to find online with a top website and increasingly more professional quality online video content. They’ve strengthened their identity as a brand with symbols and themes- the foxes and silhouetted birds- that classy, vintage, spring imagery that provides a motif throughout their album booklet. And finally, they’re putting on a live show that is consistently memorable and extraordinary with the aid of lights, set dressing, suitably mixed sound, endearing story-telling and even the sharing of homemade baked goods. This was the first time I’ve gotten to see Skipping Girl Vinegar live, and all of these signs are indicating that it won’t be the last.

Thom Owen Miles

For more of Thom Owen Miles’ music reviews, check out Timber and Steel