Cloud Control, Palms, Gang of Youths @ The Forum Theatre, Melbourne (06/09/2013)
It's been three years since Cloud Control released their debut Bliss Release at placed themselves on the global map as a band to watch for the next few years.
As they rose up to support bands like Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend, I figured they'd really grown beyond the simple trappings of just being another 'Aussie alternative rock band' and make a real image for themselves. That's certainly been achieved with the release of their sophomore release Dream Cave, but watching them perform at Melbourne's Forum Theatre this past week, you'd be forgiven for thinking they were still a bit stiff in the knees when it comes to actually putting on a fully fledged headlining show, but more on that later.
Opening the night was sydney punk/surf/noise rock outfit Palms, along with indie-rock checklist tickers Gang of Youths.
The latter, a five piece group, fronted by a guy you apparently thought he was Matt Corby and Jim Morrison combined (granted, he did have some pretty good pipes on him), sauntered through an increasingly boring set of new-wave indie rock with not much to offer in the way of ideas (unless of course stealing ideas from elsewhere counts as an idea), and then left the stage, making way for the far more charismatic, and entertaining, Palms.
I was initially pretty bloody cynical after the uninspired and pretentious display that Gang of Youths put on, and during the first few songs of Palms all I could really think was "these guys are pretty much just a shitty Wavves".
Thankfully, the charming nature of Al Grigg, managed to chill things out, and show me that Palms are more of a grower, rather than an instant satisfaction, which is strange, considering they're a fucking surf rock noise band, but I digress.
Taking to the stage, Cloud Control didn't waste much time launching into a set filled with not only plenty of new tracks, but a lot of old fan service in the way of songs as far back as from their first EPs.
They played tight, with plenty of energy, but as I mentioned before, there felt like there was something missing. Y'know when you go and see a band at a festival, and you think "wow that was really great, I bet they'd be even better live with a full set and their own rules and all that jazz", and 90% of the time you'd be right, but in the case of Cloud Control I felt as though they never rose to the occasion and the opportunity of putting on a show that was truly theirs.
The setup, both in terms of lighting, general attention to detail, the fact that the frontman was wearing his own bands t-shirt (c'mon Alister), and a comment that made it obvious the set-list was one they had been playing non-stop since the introduction of Dream Cave into their repertoire, all this made me feel as though Cloud Control had maybe slept in till 2pm in the afternoon and then suddenly realised "oh shit we have to play a show tonight". 'Rushed', I think, is the word I'm looking for.
Regardless, I'm being finicky, as the band still had plenty of spark to their performance, and the Dream Cave tracks sound like an, ahem, dream, live, with some gorgeously effected vocals on the part of both Alister and keyboardist Heidi Lenffer, which showed that while they, for me personally, lack an interesting visual aesthetic.
The band is still incredibly talented, and have some fantastic ideas to offer, and on top of that, they seem to be some really lovely people, with absolutely no qualms allowing people up on stage (much to the annoyance of security) to have a bit of a dance, then dedicating songs to said people. \
It was charming, and at the end of it all, the sweaty hugs that bassist Jeremy Kelshaw graced me and my group of concert goers with were also much appreciated.
Nick Kennedy
@NickKennedy
As they rose up to support bands like Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend, I figured they'd really grown beyond the simple trappings of just being another 'Aussie alternative rock band' and make a real image for themselves. That's certainly been achieved with the release of their sophomore release Dream Cave, but watching them perform at Melbourne's Forum Theatre this past week, you'd be forgiven for thinking they were still a bit stiff in the knees when it comes to actually putting on a fully fledged headlining show, but more on that later.
Opening the night was sydney punk/surf/noise rock outfit Palms, along with indie-rock checklist tickers Gang of Youths.
The latter, a five piece group, fronted by a guy you apparently thought he was Matt Corby and Jim Morrison combined (granted, he did have some pretty good pipes on him), sauntered through an increasingly boring set of new-wave indie rock with not much to offer in the way of ideas (unless of course stealing ideas from elsewhere counts as an idea), and then left the stage, making way for the far more charismatic, and entertaining, Palms.
I was initially pretty bloody cynical after the uninspired and pretentious display that Gang of Youths put on, and during the first few songs of Palms all I could really think was "these guys are pretty much just a shitty Wavves".
Thankfully, the charming nature of Al Grigg, managed to chill things out, and show me that Palms are more of a grower, rather than an instant satisfaction, which is strange, considering they're a fucking surf rock noise band, but I digress.
Taking to the stage, Cloud Control didn't waste much time launching into a set filled with not only plenty of new tracks, but a lot of old fan service in the way of songs as far back as from their first EPs.
They played tight, with plenty of energy, but as I mentioned before, there felt like there was something missing. Y'know when you go and see a band at a festival, and you think "wow that was really great, I bet they'd be even better live with a full set and their own rules and all that jazz", and 90% of the time you'd be right, but in the case of Cloud Control I felt as though they never rose to the occasion and the opportunity of putting on a show that was truly theirs.
The setup, both in terms of lighting, general attention to detail, the fact that the frontman was wearing his own bands t-shirt (c'mon Alister), and a comment that made it obvious the set-list was one they had been playing non-stop since the introduction of Dream Cave into their repertoire, all this made me feel as though Cloud Control had maybe slept in till 2pm in the afternoon and then suddenly realised "oh shit we have to play a show tonight". 'Rushed', I think, is the word I'm looking for.
Regardless, I'm being finicky, as the band still had plenty of spark to their performance, and the Dream Cave tracks sound like an, ahem, dream, live, with some gorgeously effected vocals on the part of both Alister and keyboardist Heidi Lenffer, which showed that while they, for me personally, lack an interesting visual aesthetic.
The band is still incredibly talented, and have some fantastic ideas to offer, and on top of that, they seem to be some really lovely people, with absolutely no qualms allowing people up on stage (much to the annoyance of security) to have a bit of a dance, then dedicating songs to said people. \
It was charming, and at the end of it all, the sweaty hugs that bassist Jeremy Kelshaw graced me and my group of concert goers with were also much appreciated.
Nick Kennedy
@NickKennedy