We headed down to The Factory while the sun was still up (!) for an all-ages (!!) gig, a night of Aussie music. To be honest, Al and I bought our (cheap!) tickets in a bit of a kneejerk reaction to reading A Reminder's post on the top Aussie and NZ bands of 2009 and feeling like we didn't know half of them. It was time we did our bit to support the local scene!
We got there early enough to catch half of the Tom Ugly set. They had good energy and some catchy hooks, but the vocal was weak under all the noise. They were pretty enjoyable nevertheless.
Cassette Kids were up next. They were polished and had good stage presence, despite their drummer having continual technical problems, but after a while every song sounded the same - the same driving beat, spiky guitar riffs and wailed vocal. They sounded like a mix of Metric, Phoenix and Yeah Yeah Yeahs - all bands that released good albums this year - and in the end they just seemed, as Al said, "very now" and derivative.
Watch: Lying Around
Headliners Philadelphia Grand Jury are currently seeing a great deal of airplay for their ridiculously catchy song The Good News, and just released their first album Hope is For Hopers in September. They played a fun, crazy and hilarious set, ripping through ten songs in just over half an hour. Singer/guitarist Simon Berckelman knocked his mike off the stand every second song and had to borrow bandmate Joel Beeson's mike, then the drummer's mike, to keep singing until the hardworking tech ("Give it up for George!") duct taped the mike to secure it to the stand. Berckelman then lost his glasses due to his energetic performance - maybe he needed everything taped down?
The duo finished the night with their four strongest songs back to back - I'm Going to Kill You, Going to a Casino, The Good News and I Don't Want to Party (Party). All of them ridiculously simple and a little on the repetitive side but so catchy it sucks you into dancing along. They threw in a chaotic outro with feedback and shambolic playing before dragging two fanboys on stage and letting them loose on bass and drums to play at being rockstars.
Download: The Good News
All in all, a fun, relaxing show to finish off the year. Yay for the Australian indie music scene!
On the downside, on our way to the Factory we were surprised to see an enormous queue snaking its way around the Enmore. What, we wondered, could gather so so many fluoro-tights-wearing teen girls with choppy hair around the doors at 5pm? The answer: Short Stack. Be afraid, Australian music lovers, be very afraid.
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