Bluejuice @ The Metro, Sydney (13/04/2012)
There’s something in the water in Brisbane, all these wonderfully talented bands are emerging. Albeit The Cairos first entered the scene in 2008, their gradual rise is surely only set to go higher. They somehow manage to combine some of the best elements of by-gone pop and rock into a captivating live performance.
‘We All Buy Stars’ brings the vocal harmonies to the fore, while ‘Listening Party’ cranks out some solid almost Led Zepplin style riffs. Lead singer and guitarist Alistar Richardson also seems to bear a mild resemblance to king of the nerd hipsters Matt Smith (current incarnation of Doctor Who) which certainly goes down well with a lot of the underage female audience. Each song in their short set had enough variety in their delivery and sound though to get the crowd bopping along.
In contrast to the more toned-down vibes of the northerners, Melbourne’s Loon Lake injected a frenetic bunch of fast-paced heavy indie rock. They reminded me a little of Franz Ferdinand or even Modest Mouse but with a distinctly Australian edge. Tracks like ‘Into The Office’ and ‘Bad To Me’ use that staccato like stop-start beat to create a forceful and cyclical energy that only seemed to rile up the young audience even more. Frontman of the band Sam looked ridiculously happy, though that may have been a combination of a good mood and some inebriation. By the time they cranked out their highly Triple J rotated track ‘In The Summer’ the dancefloor was seething with bodies as they flung themselves about jumping up and down.
For anybody who hasn’t seen Bluejuice perform of late, or missed any recent live shots of them, you may not be aware of the band’s penchant for wearing outlandish costumes onstage. At the moment, it’s performing in limited or low light whilst wearing outfits using strips of glowing neon gaffa tape. But the best thing about the current tour promoting their latest LP ‘Company’ is the visual and aural extravaganza that is the entire performance.
The first two tracks of the night ‘Can’t Keep Up’ and ‘The Recession’ feature on their latest long-player and are quite indicative of the band’s musical genre cocktail concoction on this record. While perpetually happy and slightly unhinged ‘Vitriol’ utilised the projection screen by plastering the lyrics to the song in various languages. However they put this screen to even better use for the track ‘On My Own’ by using the karaoke version of the clip to coax the audience in a sing-a-long, directly following this the syncopated drumbeats in ‘Shock’ kept the energy levels high.
The Bluejuice gang have a serious side though, and tracks like ‘Medication’ and ‘Facelift’ highlight their ability to delve into difficult topics like drug abuse or body image obsessions but doing it in an accessible and amusing way, though how much of that message got across to the underage part of the crowd I’ll never know. It was roughly about three quarters of the way through the show that a bunch of projectiles, namely glowsticks got chucked out into the crowd which then lead us into ‘Cheap Trix’ which relies heavily on synth and disco and bassline as addictive as a number of recreational substances.
The controversial video for ‘Act Yr Age’ also got a run up on the screen, and I’m sure a number of the parents in the room were squirming at the sight of it, but I think in this particular instance it took a marginal backseat to the song itself. The main part of the set was wrapped up neatly with a ginormous rousing rendition of ‘Broken Leg’ that had as all throwing our hands in the air and singing and dancing.
For those of us who were well over the age of 18, the band returned to the stage and performed KC & The Sunshine Band’s hit ‘Please Don’t Go’ in a loving albeit cheesy homage and closed the night overall with ‘You Haven’t Changed’. I’ve been fortunate enough to see Bluejuice several times over the course of their career and one thing I admire about them is their ability to consistently put on entertaining and amusing live shows. They also keep upping the ante by expanding on their production but doing it in ways that enhance the experience. I’m yet to meet somebody who has walked away from a show claiming to be bored. I’m just really glad that Jake’s speaker stack climbing antics didn’t result in another broken ankle.
Carina Nilma
‘We All Buy Stars’ brings the vocal harmonies to the fore, while ‘Listening Party’ cranks out some solid almost Led Zepplin style riffs. Lead singer and guitarist Alistar Richardson also seems to bear a mild resemblance to king of the nerd hipsters Matt Smith (current incarnation of Doctor Who) which certainly goes down well with a lot of the underage female audience. Each song in their short set had enough variety in their delivery and sound though to get the crowd bopping along.
In contrast to the more toned-down vibes of the northerners, Melbourne’s Loon Lake injected a frenetic bunch of fast-paced heavy indie rock. They reminded me a little of Franz Ferdinand or even Modest Mouse but with a distinctly Australian edge. Tracks like ‘Into The Office’ and ‘Bad To Me’ use that staccato like stop-start beat to create a forceful and cyclical energy that only seemed to rile up the young audience even more. Frontman of the band Sam looked ridiculously happy, though that may have been a combination of a good mood and some inebriation. By the time they cranked out their highly Triple J rotated track ‘In The Summer’ the dancefloor was seething with bodies as they flung themselves about jumping up and down.
For anybody who hasn’t seen Bluejuice perform of late, or missed any recent live shots of them, you may not be aware of the band’s penchant for wearing outlandish costumes onstage. At the moment, it’s performing in limited or low light whilst wearing outfits using strips of glowing neon gaffa tape. But the best thing about the current tour promoting their latest LP ‘Company’ is the visual and aural extravaganza that is the entire performance.
The first two tracks of the night ‘Can’t Keep Up’ and ‘The Recession’ feature on their latest long-player and are quite indicative of the band’s musical genre cocktail concoction on this record. While perpetually happy and slightly unhinged ‘Vitriol’ utilised the projection screen by plastering the lyrics to the song in various languages. However they put this screen to even better use for the track ‘On My Own’ by using the karaoke version of the clip to coax the audience in a sing-a-long, directly following this the syncopated drumbeats in ‘Shock’ kept the energy levels high.
The Bluejuice gang have a serious side though, and tracks like ‘Medication’ and ‘Facelift’ highlight their ability to delve into difficult topics like drug abuse or body image obsessions but doing it in an accessible and amusing way, though how much of that message got across to the underage part of the crowd I’ll never know. It was roughly about three quarters of the way through the show that a bunch of projectiles, namely glowsticks got chucked out into the crowd which then lead us into ‘Cheap Trix’ which relies heavily on synth and disco and bassline as addictive as a number of recreational substances.
The controversial video for ‘Act Yr Age’ also got a run up on the screen, and I’m sure a number of the parents in the room were squirming at the sight of it, but I think in this particular instance it took a marginal backseat to the song itself. The main part of the set was wrapped up neatly with a ginormous rousing rendition of ‘Broken Leg’ that had as all throwing our hands in the air and singing and dancing.
For those of us who were well over the age of 18, the band returned to the stage and performed KC & The Sunshine Band’s hit ‘Please Don’t Go’ in a loving albeit cheesy homage and closed the night overall with ‘You Haven’t Changed’. I’ve been fortunate enough to see Bluejuice several times over the course of their career and one thing I admire about them is their ability to consistently put on entertaining and amusing live shows. They also keep upping the ante by expanding on their production but doing it in ways that enhance the experience. I’m yet to meet somebody who has walked away from a show claiming to be bored. I’m just really glad that Jake’s speaker stack climbing antics didn’t result in another broken ankle.
Carina Nilma