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V Rating: VV A couple of Friday’s ago Andy and I had dinner at Arthur’s Pizza on our way to seeing The Sleepy Jackson at the nearby Paddington Town Hall. We had high hopes for the night, but unfortunately each experience left me disappointed. Arthur’s is a local institution that certainly packs a crowd. The decor is unassuming and everything looks like it’s been around the block a few times. The open pizza kitchen runs along the left wall. Basic tables line the right wall, and fill the back quarter of the restaurant. I don’t mean this as a criticism - I like my pizza joints to have a homely, friendly feel. Arthur’s offers some vegetarian choices. Six of the 21 pizzas were vegetarian and there were two vegetarian pasta options. Andy and I went with half a roasted vegetables, cherry tomatoes and goat’s curd pizza and half four mushrooms and cheese pizza. I found the quality a little disappointing. The topping was only lightly (as opposed to judiciously) scattered and the base was very thin and dry. The toppings sounded exciting on the menu, but when the pizzas arrived the ingredients and combinations seemed run of the mill. It wasn’t that the food was bad - it wasn’t - more that I was expecting interesting and authentic Italian pizza along the lines of Made in Italy in Pyrmont or Pompei’s in Bondi, and Arthur’s is not that kind of restaurant. After dinner we ambled across the road to catch The Sleepy Jackson. We had a lot of fun watching the infectiously cheerful warm-up act, Old Man River, but the Sleepy Jackson were disappointing. There was no structure to the set - one minute it was 80s stadium rock, the next minute country and western, then lush, bell-infused melodies and Carpenter-like ballads. They seemed pumped initially but fell apart when the crowd didn’t engage. It wasn’t that the crowd was unfriendly - we wanted them to succeed - but with the mood changing so often and a lot of unfamiliar songs it was hard to get excited. The band came back for encore - while basically acknowledging that they didn’t deserve one - but instead of choosing a song that they could be sure of pulling off, lead singer Luke Steele went with a high-pictched falsetto vocal that came apart at the seams. It was a heart-wrenchingly embarrassing final song, and I was glad for the band when they finished. It didn’t help that most of the crowd (and the band) had been up the night before watching Australia QUALIFY or the second round of the World Cup.
Comments:
2 Comments posted on "Arthur’s Pizza - Italian, Paddington, VV"
cool on July 26th, 2006 at 1:58 am #
maybe u werent aware but.. that was an ALBUM launch u f*cker.. ofcourse ther was unfamiliar songs! jeezz .. the sleepy jackson were brilliant
kpounder on July 26th, 2006 at 1:00 pm #
Whoa tiger. I got the memo about the album launch = new songs. I was just saying that because they were playing songs that were unfamiliar they had to structure the set more carefully to engage the audience. I know every other reviewer thought that it was a great gig so I guess I just don’t know genius when I see it. Personally, I thought that the new songs needed refinement, particularly around Luke’s vocals. Post a comment
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