Snowman CD Launch - Gilkisons - Saturday, October 21, X-Press Mag

Sold out by the time the first support act were cooling themselves down post-performance, Snowman’s CD launch was an absolute treat of a gig. Introducing many punters to a new venue (for live bands at least), the launch was an exciting night of great people, great bands, and great vibrations.

Streetlight were the first to guinea pig the venue’s sound, and although the band looked to be struggling to hear themselves clearly they did well to hold things together and execute their machine gun rhythms with trademark tightness. A little more variety of ideas will serve this band well, but in terms of potential, no one can touch them.

Rachael Dease just about tore the roof off Gilkisons with her jumbo jet-sized voice. For a singer to be able to cut through a band as intense as Schvendes would be impressive enough as it is, but Dease’s ability to actually power this intensity is absolutely jaw-dropping.

Undefinable (at least to any level of accuracy), Schvendes’ music seems even more punchy live, and with the natural acoustics of the studio adding a very ‘surround sound’ quality to tonight’s performance, the magic that lies within this band was very much at the forefront.
Relentless and pummelling for what seemed like well over an hour, Snowman played out their set as if it were a live tailor-made soundtrack to a short film festival, rather than a collection of individual songs within a band’s repertoire.

Seldom breaking pace - though breaking up their rather same-sounding songs with some interludes of a kind - Snowman showcased the best of what they have to offer, played as well as it ever has been. Vocalist – and the band’s drawcard for this punter – Andy Citawarman’s falsetto shriek was note perfect and spine-tingling; sounding even more alien and heavenly being bounced around the reverb-friendly dance studio. Even the self-sacrifice of Ramadan made little impact on the tiny singer’s energy levels, which at times pointed to some form of temporary madness.

His bandmates – Joe McKee in particular – looked and sounded their best as well; a sign that perhaps the nervous excitement of the occasion had spurred the band on to excel. Even after all this time, and countless shows, Snowman can still turn it up a notch when they want to, and for way of band, crowd, venue, and event, this was quite possibly the best Snowman show to date.

Actually, there’s no ‘possibly’ about it… this was the one.

_MIKE WAFER