They kicked things off with new single ‘Pay the Man’, and from that point onwards it was clear that everyone who’d made the effort to come out were in for a cracking night. Switching from one of their newest to one of their oldest, they moved straight into ‘Helena Beat’ from debut album Torches. They swapped instruments at will and really showed off what talented individuals they are, but also how tight they are as a band.
While leaning heavily on their new album, many of the crowd favourites came from sophomore album Supermodel, such as the amazingly brilliant ‘Coming of Age’, the reflective ‘Are You What You Want To Be?’ and the superbly titled ‘Pseudologia Fantastica’. Foster spoke passionately about the need for unity in the world right now and congratulated Australia for taking a step forward with the marriage equality result. When he spoke, people listened. It also didn’t sound like hollow rock’n’roll shtick as is sometimes the case at similar shows.
Rounding out the regular set with ‘Miss You’ from their debut album, it was clear they were coming back as their was a certain song from the same album that hadn’t been played. Returning for a two song encore, the band duly played ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ and lesser known single from the new album ‘Loyal Like Sid and Nancy’. It was an odd choice of final song, however the previous song, despite its sinister themes, was about as buoyant a moment as you could hope to experience at a gig.
Highlight: The positive energy.
Lowlight: Vocals not loud enough.
Crowd Favourite: ‘Pumped Up Kicks’
