The day of the Triffids approaches

WHEN David McComb died in 1999, what he left behind were songs. Hit speaks to the Perth band ahead of their Queenscliff concert this weekend.

triffids

WHEN David McComb died in 1999, what he left behind were songs.

McComb (second from left) was lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for The Triffids, the Perth band that moved to the UK in the 1980s and made a name for themselves with quality albums such as Treeless Plain and Born Sandy Devotional. The Triffids called it quits after 1989's album The Black Swan.

While their legacy was preserved by a series of reissues and the durability of their song Wide Open Road, the surviving members of The Triffids - Martyn Casey, McComb's guitarist brother Robert, drummer Alsy McDonald, keyboard player Jill Birt and pedal steel guitarist Graham Lee - thought they could never play those songs again without David.

Then came a call five years ago from two Triffids fans in Belgium - would the band consider playing some songs to go with the exhibition they were putting together?

"We had never discussed doing anything like that," Lee says. "But when someone else suggested it, we started to think perhaps we could."

That became the first of a series of shows in which the band comes together with guest vocalists to celebrate the music and their late frontman.

They are bringing the full concert to the Queenscliff Music Festival on Saturday, which means more than 2 1/2 hours on stage, including playing all of Born Sandy Devotional.

Guest vocalists include former Bad Seed Mick Harvey and Londoner Simon Breed.

"We come for the simple reason of remembering Dave through his songs," says Lee. "It's an emotionally charged but joyous event, with the knowledge that the subject of all this emotion is no longer here."

SEE The Triffids and Friends
QLD Powerhouse, tonight, $60, brisbanepowerhouse.org
VIC, Queenscliff Music Festival, tomorrow-Sun, $55 to $180, www.qmf.net.au
NSW Homebake, The Domain, Dec 3, $95, homebake.com.au