KEY POINTS:
By RUSSELL BAILLIE
After surviving the bludgeoning encores of Steve Earle down the road, it was nice to slip the ears into something more comfortable. And into something far better looking - it's not often you feel scruffy by comparison with a local rock act.
But not only were Dimmer chief Shayne Carter and his backing blokes decked out in matching black shirts and ties, Carter was often flanked by a couple of rather elegant back-up singers. Anika and Bic were their names. Nice voices. Should go far. Possibly even individually. Apparently Anika also sang backup for the Gladeyes earlier that evening.
If Dimmer had become the best-looking live band in the land, they had also improved on the delivery, helped perhaps by choosing to play two nights in the intimate, loungey confines of the Classic rather than get lost in translation on the stage of some rock barn.
The expanded live Dimmer line-up now pivots on the art-funk moves of new second album, You've Got to Hear the Music, and seems far more assured than earlier incarnations pre and post debut I Believe You are a Star. The set - a few early songs of which admittedly I missed due to Earle - did have its momentum problems. The more spartan numbers that show an admirable restraint on album don't seem able to project past the front rows live.
Still, when Dimmer hit their straps it felt dangerous and groovy, especially on the low-riding Come Here and the warped soul shapes of Evolution and I Believe You are A Star.
Best was near-last with the hypnotic rumble of The Seed, which thrilled as it peaked and ebbed while Carter's sustained white-hot guitar lines flared above. Proof that live, Dimmer is at best on high-beam.
