It was a strange crowd that filed into Ding Dong Lounge for a Sunday night kick-on after the mammoth Tame Impala show the evening before. From the textbook triple j bright young things (who probably had a VCE exam in the morning) to mums and dads on date night and really indie dudes in obnoxiously bright three-piece suits, there’s no formula to the Mini Mansions demographic.
Opening for the Los Angeles band was GUM, the lesser-known solo project of Tame Impala/POND’s Jay Watson. Just a week out from his second album release, Watson’s short set was surprising and impressive – a mix of the now signature West Australian psych sound and an energetic explosion of post-disco synths à la Donny Benét.
Despite coming from heavier projects like Queens Of The Stone Age and Spinnerette, Mini Mansions are at their best when they tap right into their pop sensibilities. Their set didn’t really explode until those first summery harmonies in Mirror Mountain. Mixing a preppy New York sound with Bowie-esque glam rock is a strange niche, but it’s where they shone brightest. A schmoozy cover of Sparks’ 1982 track Sherlock Holmes was another highlight, adding bounce and sparkly harmonies to the deadpan original. The Mini Mansions version could easily have been pulled from the soundtrack to a musical, but that chorus is so fatally catchy and simple it suited the theatrical trio to a T.
Much to the disappointment of the younger half of the audience, Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner wasn’t around to sing his verse on the band’s best-known single Vertigo. However, another Tame Impala/POND/The Growl representative, Cam Avery, expertly filled the resident heartthrob spot. Taking charge of Brian Wilson’s part in Any Emotions, Avery was – as usual – right on point.
At their best, Mini Mansions hit a perfect intersection between dazzling indie-pop and glam rock – the three members in gaudy suits played the entire show comically deadpan, with very little inter-song banter to preserve the ‘theatre’ of it all. It’s what Vampire Weekend might morph into in ten years, adding hilariously exaggerated contempt to their butter-won’t-melt indie pop – and that’s a very good thing. Before hitting that sweet spot, though, they walked a fine line between being brilliantly technical and verging on lethargy.
All three members are absolute masters of their craft, but it wouldn’t hurt to see a little bit of nuance, playfulness and soul in brilliant music that’s written to be pure fun.
BY MATILDA EDWARDS
Photo by Ian Laidlaw
Loved: Bassist Zach Dawes fondling a disco ball with his guitar neck for about two minutes.
Hated: The dad filming on an iPad in front of me. Are we really still doing this?
Drank: Ding Dong weren’t serving their weirdly delicious raspberry beer, so it was pints of Carlton for me.
