Beaches
The Public Bar, Melbourne

Last night I thought of Beaches, the movie starring Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. It was the first time I had thought of that movie since Beaches the band started going, which made me love the band even more. Apologies to Bette and Barbara, but Beaches are the new Beaches: Ali, Alison, Antonia, Karla and Gill.

The other night Beaches played a show. It was the fourth for them and the first time for me. People I trust said it ruled. It certainly did and I’ve seen a lot of rock shows. Four blondes, one brunette, three guitars, one bass plus drums, producing better indie rock than almost any man I have ever known — not an important comment, just a passing one.

Three of Beaches’ four blondes play in celebrated, yet arguably inferior rock groups (Love of Diagrams, Spider Vomit, Panel of Judges). Probably premature to compare them to the mighty Panel, even though both bands churn out a sticky melodic juju that’s hard to find and even harder to resist: a potion of vixen rhythms and diamond-light guitar strokes. At the Public Bar, the instrumentals rocked finest. ‘Sandy’, punctuated by Gary Glitter-y yelps, is the obvious cut for half-time at the MCG, though I doubt Beaches would agree philosophically, it would make them revoltingly rich!

After years of studying her former beau, Paul, in action for Panel of Judges, Karla Way has made her drumming debut. It’s like a version of Karate Kid III with Paul as Pat Morita and Karla as Hillary Swank with far more interesting results. Karla drums just like Charlie Watts!

I hesitate to make comparisons with other bands, especially after only seeing them once, plus my memory is hazy, ah what the hell, The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You tour circa ’81 (see I told you). My wish is that someday there will only be two types of people in this world, ones who know Beaches the movie and the ones who know Beaches the band and the ones who only know Beaches the movie will have to get their heads examined.

by Shane Moritz