Split Enz

NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, Split Enz is a strange band. They walk out on stage like a collection of clockwork scarecrows and their music is like a beserk mechanism. There are six musicians, a spoon player cum dancer and a sound effects guy. And everyone of 'em follows their own line of idiosyncratic action. Rhythms and melodies bounce off each other, collide, join hands, change partners – the show just about always teeters on the edge of total anarchy – and sometimes it falls off altogether. Those are the bad nights. When it does hold together it is something of an awe-inspiring sight and sound. A wondrous sound to behold, a mechanism that flails in every direction yet produces a coherent sound.