The Thorns at Coast

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

For some, this visit by the Thorns was tinged with disappointment even before the American trio harmonised a single note. Because the three - Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins, and Peter Droge - all have established careers as singer-songwriters.

Sweet, who has been out under his own name since the mid 80s delivering one deft powerpop album after another, might even find his cult following extends this far, and that the other six members of the Auckland chapter and I really might have preferred him under his own name with band.

But the Thorns, it seems, is a chance for the trio to get some mainstream attention with an album of lush harmonies and songs which recall a golden era of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Beach Boys and other groups we associate with California of days gone by, full of guys singing with a finger in one ear.

Which is the reason this performance in the fabulous setting of a few floors above the Auckland waterfront was presented by the local classic hits station. The Thorns might not have had any hits yet, but they sure do sound classic.

And live, acoustic, and stripped of their debut self-titled album's efforts at period re-creation, the Thorns sounded terrific.

Accompanying themselves on a mix of six- and 12-string acoustic guitars, dulcimers and the occasional ukulele, Sweet, Mullins and Droge repeatedly displayed fully the strange emotive power of white guys singing elegant melodies in three-part harmony in really high voices.

Curiously though, Mullins, flanked by the other two, had a speaking voice so low and rumbling it was hard to make out his pre-song announcements. But all three kept up a friendly banter in what was a short showcase set.

In those few songs, the CSN&Y echoes came through in Think It Over, there was a Beach Boys' emulation or two, especially in the likes of opener Runaway Feeling, while the drippy Long, Sweet Summer Night did unfortunately prove you can have too much of a good thing.

Still, short and, er sweet as it was, this brief encounter showed this singer-singer-singer-songwriter group just might flower into something very big indeed.

And that even members of the Sweet fanclub couldn't grumble about that.