Maurice, The Racoons, Vince Vaccaro

A couple weeks ago I saw these three indie bands at The Media Club. It was a Wednesday again, so the crowds were not exactly thick, but it picked up throughout the first set. The first set being The Racoons. I knew about Maurice and Vince, but I hadn't heard anything by the Racoons at that point. The crowd was only about 15 deep at the beginning of the Racoon's set, so it was an intimate performance. As each song came up, I was blown away with the fact that I really, really liked each and every song they performed. Matty has a deeper voice which worked great.

Next up was Maurice, with JP on vocals wearing an obscene pair of yellow tight jeans. Despite the jeans, the performance was also very good, although I didn't feel like every track was great like I did with The Racoons. Their track "Love is love" I can very much see being a radio hit though - it gets stuck in your head easily, and is extremely easy to listen to.

Vince Vaccaro has a soulful, more scruffy voice (and appearance too), and armed with just a guitar, can captivate the audience. His tracks "Animal" and "Costa Rica" were my favourites. Here is "Costa Rica" being performed at The Peak, you can fast forward to about 2:30 if you want to just hear the song:



Note that JP beside him is the singer and guitar player for Maurice - the three bands, all hailing from Victoria, work together on their music. Since Vince is just a one-man show, he utilizes the manpower of Maurice and The Racoons on those tracks that use a full band. Victoria is alive and well in the indie rock scene!

In the end, I purchased all three of their CDs at the show. Vince had a 13 track self-titled album, Maurice with 12 tracks on "Young People with Faces", and The Racoons with a seven track EP "Islomania".

Check out their myspace pages:

www.myspace.com/theracoonsmusic
www.myspace.com/wearemaurice
www.myspace.com/vincevaccaro