I have never been to Australia, and perhaps it's for the best. From listening to Australian pop acts such as the Go-Betweens and the Lucksmiths, I have formed an idea that their home country is a beautiful sunlit place where people happily burst into richer than homemade chocolate cake pop melodies without warning. No one even notices that they are all singing instead of speaking, and even the kangaroos stop whatever they're doing when this happens and begin bouncing along to the music. Now, I doubt any of these events actually happen in Australia; so to avoid disappointment, I think it might be better for me to visit only the imaginary version I've constructed for the time being. Fortunately, those trips are easy enough to arrange while listening to the latest live release by The Go-Betweens, That Striped Sunlight Sound - especially since all the events catalogued on this two-disc set were actually recorded in Brisbane, Australia.
Of course, it is utterly sensible to not recommend a concert disc like this one to Go-Betweens newcomers - who, frankly, make up a large percentage of today's American music listeners. The Go-Betweens were active throughout the '80s, but for this generation of the terminally indie, probably their only really noticeable release occurred in 2000, when they made a collaborative comeback with all of Sleater-Kinney on The Friends of Rachel Worth. At the same time, however, this might just be a great place to start, simply because there is an energy in this stage performance (both in the visual and audio versions of the set) that doesn't always translate into hearing a Go-Betweens studio disc. That Striped Sunlight Sound isn't recommended for anyone who wants all of their live albums to be chock-full of rock and roll theatricality, but for anyone who's a little lonely and needs to feel like they're on a mid-summer picnic with a group of their best friends, then this music will definitely engrave its way onto your heart.
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1 - Connie Phillips
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