The Sleepy Jackson

2003 was a big year for West Australian band The Sleepy Jackson with the release of several EP’s & their debut Album, Lovers which in turn led to them achieving ‘buzz band’ status in UK magazines such as NME.

Cut to three years later & with the recent release of their second album Personality (One was a Spider, One was a Bird) the band are again garnering media attention; but for all the promotion that comes with being signed to a Major label, it’s word of mouth that seems to have led a majority of the crowd out to see the Sleepies at the Manchester Academy 3 as part of their current UK Tour.



Even with a revolving cast of band mates, the only constant member of the group since day one, frontman Luke Steele has created an impressive catalogue of melancholy pop songs with the new record that the group’s discerning audience (a body of more mature music fans – the type that own extensive vinyl collections) had eagerly come out to hear live.

While media stories continue to play up Luke’s genius/madman status as a reason for the departure of so many musicians from The Sleepy Jackson in the past, the other mainstay in the group, drummer Malcolm Clark, (who has been working with Steele now for five years) works together with his frontman on stage with amazing synchronicity.

Breaking in three new band members on a whirlwind UK/US tour would be difficult for any group, but learning to adjust to Luke’s more freeform way of playing must add just that little bit of extra pressure. But for all this, the five guys that now make up The Sleepy Jackson played a tight set with the only noticeable problem being some occasionally dicey vocal harmonising that could possibly have been fixed with a bit of microphone tweaking.



The Sleepy Jackson live are a different beast to what you find on their records, playing their songs in a dirtier, more pared down style which better suits the relatively small venues being played on the current tour. With a huge assortment of percussion instruments, a large Amp stack, extra mics & an impressive range of effects pedals covering the floor, the band looked cramped enough on the relatively small Academy 3 stage with the gear that they had, let alone if they had tried to reproduce the grand, sweeping sounds found on Personality.

Opening their long set with a wall of fractured noise, The Sleepy Jackson soon changed tack & broke into the first single off the new Album, God Lead Your Soul – a sweet multilayered song that mixes Beach Boys style harmonising with a bit of a country twang. The 17 + song set was a mixture of tunes from both of the band’s Albums with the more spiritual themes of Personality - tracks such as God Knows & Higher than Hell scattered with songs from their 2003 release, including Come To This and Vampire Racecourse. All potentially empty space was filled with a collection of white noise, a spontaneous rendition of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, as Luke joked about his reputation in the media and banter between various band members & the audience, including a proud Steele announcing his Engagement to the crowd halfway through the show.

With the current incarnation of the band being so new, it will be interesting to see how the Sleepies grow from here. Hopefully the new line-up will stick & subsequent UK tours will see a Sleepy Jackson playing on a larger scale & able to garner the attention both the talent of the musicians & the strength of their songs deserve.

FUTURE GIGS

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