Homegrown trio Blondehouse’s show this weekend will be more than just the launch of their brand new double single The Gun/Pulling Teeth.
With fellow local bands Goodwood and Toucan on board, they hope the Barwon Club this Friday night (14 November) will be host to a celebration of the Geelong rock scene.
Frontman Charlie McIlvena said the evening was shaping up to be “a great time”.
“Toucan are a funkier outfit who are old friends of ours with the same sort of crowd, and Goodwood are really old friends of mine, so it definitely feels like a reunion,” he said.
For McIlvena, the crunch of guitar sounds has always been central. Influenced by his father, he grew up listening to seminal grunge bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Silverchair.
But – perhaps also influenced by his father’s love of country music – McIlvena seeks to infuse his grunge-tinged tunes with genuine emotional impact.
“I’m trying to recount personal experiences in a bit of a more vague way so that the listener can put their own experiences into the words,” he said.
“I try most of the time not to be too specific with what I’m writing about…(otherwise) it’s like, oh, I’ve just written a short story here.
“(I write) a lot of love songs, a lot of heartbreak songs, because everybody gets the tingle, so I think that’s important to have people to be able to relate to it.”
When it’s time to take to the stage, though, the focus is on the rock.
“I think we kind of turn it up a little bit in the shows, because we are just a three-piece,” he said.
“On the records there’s more layers and stuff going on, and maybe because of the fact that there’s not six people on stage, we kind of just kind of crank it all up a little bit. Everything’s a little bit heavier, a little bit dirtier, a little bit sludgier.
“So just kind of trying to get whatever emotion feels right on the stage on any given day across to the audience to sort of make them move, and maybe move them.”
Tickets available at barwonclub.com.au or at the door.
