do you believe in magick?

The Preatures @ The Florida Beach Bar, Terrigal NSW 10/08/2018 written by Brendan Lewis.

Photos by Kevin Bull @ Reverb Street Press.

Once upon a time…. This time in fact, there was a rock band, but this band were no ordinary rock band. This band is something new entirely, lead by the magick moves of Izzi the ‘shimmy-shaker’, with her blue planet eyes and cherry ripe lip balm. Together with her girlhood knights in shining musical armour (guitar’s) band mates, travel the lands far and wide entertaining and delighting the people with their rock and roll rave anthems on the ‘Magick’ tour. Tonight at the village of much magical golden water (beer) in Terrigal, a cruel foe threatens to mess it up for everyone by trapping our minds with boredom and sobriety on this Friday night…. The two tend to go hand in hand.

Hmmm I think I know a girl who might just be able to save us…

As we start our journey down the musical yellow brick road, the first three enchanting encounters are the shakin’ up beat rock wonder, ‘Girlhood’ followed by the anthemic sing along, ‘Somebody’s Talking’ and the playful villainy in ‘Cruel’. Lead singer Izzi taps her magical dancing shoes together straight away and shows off her not-so family-friendly moves, that earn her the name the ‘shimmy shaker’. In ‘Girlhood’, the addition of some complementive male vocals in the songs’ chorus adds a nice layer of harmonies to help Izzi’s vocals out on their glorious journey through the sound around them. As far as the mix of sound goes tonight, it’s well, dirty, yes, dirty…. Keep it G rated people. The sounds are even and all stand out adequately and aren’t detrimental to Izzi’s vocals, but the sound, mainly the bass, is a bit dirty, a bit rough, like the swamp in which Shrek lives in, but luckily it’s not the swamp that’s drawing the main focus… No, it’s Izzi’s clear, smooth yet sharp-edgy vocals that are filled with confident sass, especially in ‘Somebody’s Talking’. As rough as the sound quality is, the bands teamwork and ability to stand out in their own unique way, yet assist one another seamlessly like a flock of birds circling around Izzi is truly stunning. After lead guitarist Jack plays the role of prince charming in the bridge section of ‘Somebody’s Talking’ by dazzling the audience with a funky solo, the high level of energy in ‘Cruel’ casts a wicked spell on the crowd, making us all shake a tail feather as Izzi performs every vocal note perfectly as in the recording, which is truly impressive as her “totally G rated” dance moves keep up their stride and stimulate the male portion of the crowd.

The next three musical adventures on this journey are ‘I Know A Girl’, ‘Lipbalm’ and ‘I Like You’. For ‘I Know A Girl’ we’re taken back in time to an early 90’s disco, with all band members on stage equally contributing to help elevate the songs’ sound nicely. An ear catching zap of guitar skills electrifies our excitement and clears the way for the calmer bridge section, that the whole crowd sing along to Izzi in, like one of those annoying yet effective sing-a-long/musical scenes in every G-rated movie ever made.  ‘Lipbalm’ takes us through a more open country swagger landscape making a diverse change to the set, whilst fitting in nicely with attention-demanding guitar and bass riffs leading the musical voyage arm-in-arm. The energy is swished right back up in ‘I Like You’ with it’s dance-provoking anthemic vibes, that feature a sparkling bright guitar riff to lift up and carry Izzi’s impressive vocal technique in the first half of the song, like the magic carpet ride, before the song explodes in it’s climax and shoots the stunning guitar riffs forward to lead at the songs’ end.

As magical as this quest has been, the bad guys aren’t defeated completely yet I’m afraid! Throughout the show, there’s been a menacing troll lurking in the crowd constantly shouting out his request for the band to play ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis, which may have been amusing, for the first time, not 50 drunken times later! So after ‘I Like You’, the band give the drunken troll what he asked for, they start playing the chord progression of ‘Wonderwall’ then stop and tell the troll “There’s your Wonderwall, NOW SHUT THE F*** UP!”. Bringing a roar of laughter from the audience. THAT, is how you fight off the bad guy people!

For the rest of this adventure now brightened up by that classy defeat of the troll, we encounter the bands’ somber hearted touring single ‘Magick’, filled with childhood nostalgia and high-school prom-like wonder, a taste of new music with ‘Night Off’ which follows suit of the bands’ trademark teamwork, sass and funk, and the fan favourite ‘Ordinary’ which features an electric drum intro to spice things up and gets the crowd clapping along in the songs’ bridge, like enchanted victims of a euphoric spell. Time for another sing along! Taking advantage of the lively laid-back crowd, the band give us a blistering cover of The Angels ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’ which even with female vocals leading rather than the original songs male vocals, does perfect justice to the original and goes down perfectly in the crowd, who are all chanting the main vocal hook like cheering on their heroes. Sadly folks, all good things must come to an end, and perfectly timed after the hype in ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’, the energy and excitement is at a red hot blaze for the final two showdowns against the big-bad boss….. For all Super Mario fans, it’s the musical equivalent of facing Bowser at the end of the game. The last two chapters for tonight are all-time favourites, ‘Is This How You Feel?’ and the inspirational feel-good song of unity and acceptance ‘Yanada’.  The twirling and impressive guitar riffs in ‘Is This How You Feel?’ blast the energy forward in this classic from the band, and just as the energy is at its peak, sends Izzi leaping off the stage to lean into the crowd to sing and dance with her fans and blast the energy even higher and send Bowser packing (so to speak). Finally, like the happy ending that comes at the end of every fairytale, the band talk about the inspirational meaning behind ‘Yanada’ and how it’s special to them and took two years to write, before the positive energy with a pinch of country flavour and smooth male harmonies drive the show to a happily ever after, and continue Izzi’s high-energy and sassy not-so G-rated dance moves that if the alcohol on offer hasn’t done so, leaves one intoxicated.

That’s what I call a happy ending! The end...