Models – The Gershwin Room, The Espy

In all probability the current incarnation of Models will be a fleeting footnote on the bands history, a single entry on the band’s Wikipedia page that says “In 2010 a line-up consisting of Sean Kelly, Andrew Duffield, Barton Price and Mark Ferrie played a single, well received show at the Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne. This was to be the final show in the band’s history.”

Yet the consensus among the small but well informed Models focus group (which seemed to be reflected in the large and very enthusiastic audience) was that this incarnation was as good, nay, superior to any we had witnessed in the bands 30 year history.

It makes you wonder what creative and musical peaks this line-up could reach if the got it into their collective heads to persist beyond this show.

Musically they were outstanding. Each member contributed to the re-incarnation of these songs into a more muscular, more flexible (but no less interesting) version of their former selves. Each player individually has evolved into a better player but collectively the whole far exceeds the sum of even these improved parts. Sean Kelly’s guitar playing – even when only availing himself of the services of five strings – was better and more confident than I remembered, and the quirky, yet very ‘musical’ keyboards of Andrew Duffield made me realise what a loss he was when he drifted from the bosom of the band after it’s initial foray into our consciousness.

But the real “one and one makes three” aspect of this line-up was the rhythm section of  Price and Ferrie who had never recorded together and yet seemed obviously the best bass and drums backline the Models never had.

The songs played were drawn largely from the albums Alphabravocharliedeltaechofoxtrotgolf, Local and/or General and the EP Cut Lunch. While most fans would have left rejoicing about the setlist it’s only the day after when you realise what they left out.

They played the whole first side of Local and/or General but nothing from Side 2, which may have simply been a co-incidence. We were treated to Pate Pedestrian and Happy Birthday IBM from Alpha Bravo but not Pull The Pin, Kissing Around Corners and Uncontrollable Boy. The Cut Lunch EP contributed Two Cabs To The Toucan, Atlantic Romantic and the title track, but Man O’ Action missed out.

Big On Love and Evolution (from Out of Mind Out of Sight and Media respectively) were two surprising inclusions and were perhaps a gesture of Kelly reclaiming those albums.

Of course the encore which offered up (among others) Telstar was enough to make a group of (fast approaching) 50 year old men very, very happy and possibly bought a collective tear to the collective eye of those collected in the Gershwin.

There is certainly another show’s worth of songs that didn’t get an airing tonight, especially when you count the plethora of more obscure live hits (after a fashion) that are lurking ominously on the Models Melbourne album.
Accordingly the Models focus group was left demanding not just an encore but a whole extra performance.

Is it simply the nostalgia talking?

I don’t think so – the era of Models from which the majority of tonight’s set was drawn came from a time when the band, and Kelly in particular, were ahead of their time. They have a body of probably fifty songs that are as smart, adventurous, quirky, intelligent, humorous and endearing as any of the new bands of today who are operating in a new-wave/pop/punk/artschool influenced way. There is absolutely no reason why they couldn’t record a new album of new songs and merge them into this remarkable catalogue and add to their legacy.

To a casual fan of Australian music tonight’s setlist contained a number of songs that a casual fan would have expected to hear. They weren’t missed, not even slightly, and the audience at tonight’s show lapped up what was on offer in the knowledge that this was the band Models always should have been.

But it’s a different world now – it’s not about record sales, expensive videos, high-priced producers and recouping label advances anymore. This incarnation of the Models could be a highly successful cottage industry by recording new songs when they have them, touring that wonderful catalogue of songs, in this brilliantly talented and coherent configuration and selling t-shirts and compilation CD’s to people like the small, but highly insightful Models focus group.

I hope they do that and I’m know I’m not alone.