Friendly folk Cross paths again
THEY may have been noisier in the 1990s, but old mates Darren Cross and Tim Evans will still crank it up when they bring their neo-folk guitar extravaganza to Tasmania tonight.
Cross is best known as a member of genre-defying Sydney band Gerling, who released a string of popular singles including Enter Space Capsule, Death to the Apple Gerls and Dust Me Selecta in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
After Gerling he launched a solo career as The E.L.F. Most recently he’s been one half of Sydney folk noir duo Jep and Dep.
Evans, meanwhile, was one of the driving forces behind Hobart’s thriving music scene of the 1990s, as the frontman of bands including seminal noise guitar group Sea Scouts.
After Sea Scouts toured the US and Europe in 1999, Evans moved to Melbourne, where he formed post-punk garage rock band Bird Blobs.
Bird Blobs toured the world and released two albums before Evans packed up again and moved to New York, where he spent a decade performing with his bands Degreaser and Coconuts and exhibiting his paintings.
Cross and Evans have been friends since the ’90s, when Gerling and Sea Scouts played numerous shows together in Hobart and Sydney. Now they’ve reunited, but instead of abstract electro or noisy punk music, this time around they’re peddling folk guitar tunes inspired by the likes of John Fahey, Nick Drake, Neil Young and Bert Jansch.
Darren Cross and Tim Evans start the Tasmanian leg of their Regional Headf--k Tour with a show at The Chapel in Burnie from 7.30pm tonight (tickets are $10 from www.trybooking.com).
They then play at Willie Smith’s Apple Shed at Grove from 6pm tomorrow, and at Hobart’s Brisbane Hotel from 7pm on Saturday (with Maus from the Black Mourning Band and Aldous Kelly from the Stickmen, tickets $5 at the door), before finishing with a performance at the Next Door Bar at Franklin from 3pm on Sunday.