gentle ben and his shimmering hands

_{That's Gentle Ben on stage at Binic last month or The Bubble Boy from Seinfeld. You be the judge. Photo by @dujouraulendemain}

It’s a line in the media release that we just have to use: “Like the one-night stand you hoped to never see again, Gentle Ben & His Shimmering Hands are back to ruin your life, break your heart and make your loins quiver”.

The Brisbane “haute couture swamp rockers” (their words again, not ours)  left France a few days ago in a smouldering, postcoital ruin, after smashing out 13 shows over 15 days, playing at a former tobacco factory under a big-top, in a 14th century pub, and in front of 10,000 fanatical French fans at Binic.

Gentle Ben turn their sights to the East Coast of Australia this month to unleash their new album, “Brut” on French label Beast Records.It's available in Australia through Spooky Records and it's procurable here.

Rock noir extraordinaire exponents, Gentle Ben and His Shimmering Hands, kick off their Australian East Coast tour to promote their album “Brut” at The Cactus Room in Melbourne tonight with Screensaver and Tali & The Arms.

After that it’s off to Major Tom’s in Kyneton (September 21). Marrickville Bowling Club in Sydney (with The Holy Soul on September 27) and The Bearded Lady in hometown Brisbane (with Refedex and Anna & The MorphicsSeptember 27).

The band fronted by Ben Corbett (SixFtHick)is fresh from a blistering run of 13 shows in France including the prestigious Binic Festival (pictured above).

Gentle Ben & His Shimmering Hands
SEP
20 – The Cactus Room
Tickets
21 – Major Tom’s, Kyneton
– Major Tom’s
27 – Marrickville Bowling Club, NSW 
Tickets
28 – The Bearded Lady, West End, QLD
Tickets

Brut - Gentle Ben and his Shimmering Hands (Beast Records/Spooky Records)

You dug Six Foot Hick? Of course you did. Gentle Ben and his Sensitive Side? Sure. 

But it's 2024. And “Brut'” is here. 

The Shimmering Hands are Jhindu Pedro-Lawrie on drums, Dan Baebler on bass, and Tony Giaccaon guitars. Ben Corbett handles the vocals... 

The Bandcamp blurb explains; “The themes of BRUT range from a fraught, taught exploration of the broken bodies, hearts and minds of our capitalist hellscape (‘Spices’) to wailing rock and roll eulogies (‘De Bliksem’, ‘No Encore’), a drifting death-country ode to colonialism (‘Five Stars’) to bloody kitchen sink drama (‘Tactical Empathy’).”