Melbourne-bred indie rock band Winnie Lane make headlines in the Bergy Bandroom! This indie band sought to redefine themselves after a change in band members  and allowed audiences on the night of the 8th of June to experience a never-heard EP for the first time.

Before Winnie Lane took to the stage, we got a special treat from Luna the Moon and Replacement Driver, both of whom helped set the stage and general mood for the rest of the show. Luna the Moon, a ukulele trio, played original folk songs about the dreadful experience of lockdown, the mundaneness of everyday life,and featured covers of ‘Toxic’ and ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’. The soft melodies invited and eased audiences into the show and, once audiences were settled in, Replacement Driver brought in the roughness and energy with a setlist that consisted mostly of covers of indie pop-rock classics like ‘Alrighty Aphrodite’ along with one original song.

Though Luna the Moon and Replacement Driver were good, the performances weren’t anything special; to me, this was representative of this whole gig, great songs but alright performances. While head-banging to the guitar and vocals is a lot of fun, that doesn’t really mean much when I’m the only one doing it.

By this time, I was holding out hope that Winnie Lane would be different but, much to my disappointment, they weren’t. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the songs thoroughly, but as a show, it just wasn’t able to capture my full attention which was mainly due to a lack of variety in the setlist and the lack of a frontman to engage the crowd. There were members of the audience at the front row that had to hype up the crowd for the band, instead of the opposite; it was quite disappointing to see because Winnie Lane’s music is really good, and I get the whole “let the music speak for itself” spiel, but as an up-and-coming band who a majority of the audience knows little about, there needs to be something for the audience to be able to latch onto to remain engaged throughout the show. My personal pet peeve is when bands explain a song before they perform it, which Winnie Lane did quite a lot.

I felt that the setlist Winnie Lane performed didn’t really work for Bergy Bandroom. The venue was impressive as it was big but intimate, small but roomy and had good acoustics, which complemented all of the band’s sounds but specifically Winnie Lane, as a lot of their songs featured droning guitars that reverberated through the crowd in a very pleasing way. The crowd had to stand, though, and the slow-rock songs that Winnie Lane played during the latter half of the setlist did not conjure up enough energy for me to stand for 40 minutes. These songs, for me, needed to be enjoyed sitting with a glass of the finest beverage they have and some small candlelights to accompany the dark venue.

However, the first few songs that Winnie Lane played, from ‘Essay’, ‘Dear PM’ and ‘To me it may concern’, were electric. It revived the audience and each of these songs were amazing and so much better live than their recorded versions. The way they harmonised their vocals was reminiscent of barbershop-quartets. Otto (the new band member and drummer) really shines on ‘Rely on’ through his fantastic vocal and instrumental performances. ‘Ozone’, the single this gig was for, shone through the chorus and the funky synths.

Though the gig had much room for improvement, I have no doubt that Winnie Lane will be able to put on an amazing performance in the future.

You can listen to Winnie Lane's latest single 'Ozone' here.