What a night this was shaping up to be. Two fantastic headline bands on the same bill… rarely does a double header promise so much and deliver at the same time.
What a night this was shaping up to be. Two fantastic headline bands on the same bill… rarely does a double header promise so much and deliver at the same time. The Chemist are also quite excellent, but due to the absurdly early start, they were sadly sacrificed for beers. In hindsight, due to the all ages set-up, beers should have been treated with more importance and drunk with more urgency. Indeed, by the time we arrived at Festival Hall those beers were wearing off, adding to the pressure on the tunes to keep us on our toes.
Silversun Pickups, though, are an indie tour-de-force, touring their latest album Swoon… although just playing the one headline show of their own in Melbourne. This, of course, sold out in minutes. It was only half-eight in the evening, but they got the juju flowing very early. The drummer was the topic of much discussion early with one of his symbols perched far above his other drums, having to reach every time he wanted to hit it. Clearly not happy with the amount of attention he was receiving, he looked to drastic measures to get in the spotlight. It worked. Stupid as fuck, but great to watch.
They played a pretty even spread of songs from Carnavas and Swoon with oldies Melatonin and Lazy Eye getting a massive reaction from the swelling crowd. Panic Switch was fantastic as was Substitution. The Yanks were getting some serious love from the crowd with a mosh pit of sorts getting sweaty early. Front man Brian Aubert was thankful to the crowd and thankful to Birds Of Tokyo and left the crowd more than juiced-up for the headliners.
Without too much waiting, on came the genre-blending Birds Of Tokyo. Suddenly with three albums and an EP or two to choose from, the set list was going to be interesting, especially with the slight but noticeably different sounds in the three albums. In the end, Day One and the latest self-titled album were heavily favoured, with only a few songs from the hugely popular Universes making the cut. White Witch, without a doubt my favourite track from Universes, was suitably epic and got everyone involved.
Unfortunately, though , it was hard to shake the feeling that there were a lot of people present that were roped in by the hit singles; Silhouettic, Broken Bones and Plans. Not for a minute intending to take away from these brilliant tracks, but there was a slight lull in the vibe when an older song was played or one of the new epics was played.
Wild At Heart was, as predicted, absolutely massive, really highlighting Kenny’s exceptional vocals. Kenny wasn’t quite at his creepy best, but there were some occasions where he got his trademark dinosaur dance on; it’s something that’s amazing to watch and reaffirms his status as one of this country’s best frontmen. Glenn on keys was shredding ivory all night, even surfing his seat while smashing some sweet piano at the same time. Sir – you are a king. Drummer Adam Weston has the creepiest haircut in the business, it would stand out even in the mid ’90s. On guitars, Sparky was fairly contained for most of the night, rocking out occasionally to the delight of the capacity-filled Festival Hall.
The two-song encore, featuring new epic The Gap and older epic Broken Bones, was a fantastic way to end, but made me remember how horrendous encores are. We wouldn’t be there if we didn’t love you.
But regardless, this was one of the most satisfying nights of live music in a long time.
