Mesik: town and country

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As young musicians, the boys would take any opportunity to play live. "Once we played a gig at the Traralgon show. There was no drinking, lots of families around, pony rides and stuff, but you have to take any chance you can get, even if your only audience is your Dad, your brother and the people left over from the dog show... as long as someone's listening, and you get a chance to play."

Each member has varied and extensive experience as musicians. John has played in various jazz ensembles, is a part of RnB cover band Black Markit and is completing tertiary studies in music. Campbell has composed music for many of his own alternative bands, completed a Bachelor of Media Arts, and is a part of drum and bass project LaPun. Genaaron has played guitar for most of his life and is currently studying a Bachelor of Music at the VCA.

Together as Mesik, the threesome focus on playing gigs and being a part of the Melbourne music scene. The boys think that Australian young people should trust their musical instincts, and do their own thing. This in turn, they believe, will produce a unique, creative, thriving music scene that can go "forwards, backwards and everywhere in between..."
"We are setting ourselves a challenge," Campbell explains. "We want to be different in every way. People can interpret us however they want, we don't care if they hate us or like us. If we could please all of them we'd be stoked, but you can't please everyone."
"Music is like basketball. If you dribble enough you can put it through the ring." John continues. Whatever that means.

With an EP on the way, Mesik are looking for gigs in Melbourne.

Listen to a sample of Mesik

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Cake cooks

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After a short wait in a growing line, I was befriended for the evening by the eccentric pigtailed Sarah Jane and her fiancé. They reserved good seats for my gig partner and me, and offered interesting observations about sound engineering and old-school Ska bands.

Cake has a very diverse following. Songs like The Distance and Sheep Go To Heaven Goats Go To Hell have attracted a wide fan base, from the 40-something-year-old sound engineer from Adelaide to my left, to the 20-something VonDutch visor, midriff bulging out of her jeans, blowing smoke into my face on my right. Somewhere in the distance I could see a bald head, pot belly and glasses of a man standing next to an unusually tall girl wearing an AC/DC t-shirt. Cake tracks have been used in everything from movies such as Dreams of an Insomniac, to the psychological gangster TV-series The Sopranos.

It wasn't a violent, raging rock-show, but the intense Cake-loving vibe was electric, and everybody, drunk or not, was there to enjoy their tunes. The placid and gentle crowd made it easy for me, tired of try-hards blowing poisonous chemicals into my face, to break my philosophy of "the higher the viewing, the better" and wiggle my to the front without having any limbs crushed, . In the absence of moshing, or harmful bodily heavings, I gratefully settled in the front row, arms resting on the stage - a unique opportunity, at such a big gig, to enjoy an intimate performance.

During the first few songs of perfectly intoned horn lines from Vince, complaints of technical difficulties from McCrea and total vocal silence from everybody else in the group, I realized with great pride that the band I had loved for so long were truly professional musicians.

Dewy-eyed (both from the air-con, and the shimmering reflection of DiFiore's trumpet) I looked up at my heroes. McCrea, bearded and casually dressed, singing with perfect intonation, was friendly, conversational and comfortable on stage. The drummer and bass player were caught like pre-road kill in headlights, searching the dark for the thousands of cheerful faces beyond the stage lights. The guitarist, who I assumed spoke a foreign language, replaced speech with sound; a technically impressive soloist.

The music had a sophistication that belied the simplicity of their more commercial releases; some pieces resembled through-composed rock concerti. The newer songs, like Short Skirt/Long Jacket (from 2001 release Comfort Eagle), sat comfortably with older songs, like Comanche, from the 1994 release, Motorcade of Generosity. These songs are truly rock masterpieces.

Cake were close to perfect. The performance was tight, on tempo and in tune. At times their precision verged on the mechanical (compared with, say, Green Day live), but in general Cake confirmed themselves to be very experienced and exceptionally talented musicians. A wonderful gig from a superb band.

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