_The Grates, Last Dinosaurs @ The Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne (31/10/2011)
Halloween proved the perfect night for The Grates to take over Melbourne's Hi Fi in a sea of masqueraded fans who were in for quite a treat.
Clad in ponchos and glow-in-the-dark-shoes, Last Dinosaurs barely look old enough to be permitted entry into the venue. Fittingly, their music is youthfully exuberant surf-pop, centred around punchy strumming patterns and catchy choruses. The band has just arrived after spending two solid days driving. They are clearly tired and this is apparent in their performance. Musically, they are great, but at times, the band members seem to blend into the stage scenery.
Aptly, many members of the crowd are sporting costumes in celebration of Halloween. To add to the theatrics, the Hi-Fi plays X-Files theme music to set a spooky scene. Even if one wouldn’t necessarily consider paranoid conspiracies about government alien cover-ups to be relating to Halloween, it’s an entertaining idea nonetheless and it does contribute to the ambiance to some extent.
After the stage has sat void of human life for more than thirty minutes, the lights finally descend. Typical for The Grates, they are an atomic bomb of dangerous energy from the very second they burst onto stage. John Patterson’s smile could not be any larger, and Patience Hodgson is leaping wildly, clearly enthused by….well, she has so much energy, we can assume she’s enthused by everything. Dressed in bloodstained white cotton shirts, the band looks like they’d engaged in some slasher-film-style-stab-a-thon, backstage. Spoiler alert! Think Billy and Stu from the finale Scream – that’s how The Grates look tonight.
With a frantically feverish vigour, the band bursts into Science is Golden. The crowd erupts (it’s safe to assume that this review will be full of bomb analogies. The Grates are literally explosive). Hodgson’s voice is seriously strong. She can scream and screech, with a incontrovertible power, not dissimilar to Karen O. However, the crowd of the sold-out Hi-Fi Bar and Ballroom in Melbourne can surprisingly challenge and overpower Hodgson in a sing-along. At times, her voice is completely drowned out by the vociferous audience. The band notices this and delighted smiles are plentiful.
Putting aside the gorgeous indie pop songs with a fierce punk edge, the indisputable draw-card to any show by The Grates is the energised antics of Hodgson. Her liveliness is seemingly limitless. She leaps and bounds all across the stage, jumping furiously fast, while shaking her head, all the while, not missing a single word and singing in perfect pitch.
Her short skirt draws attention to her long slender legs (but not in a perverse way). Throughout the night, it’s fair to assume that every conceivable leg flex that a human is capable of (and many that are probably stretching physiological limits), is attempted and successfully executed by Hodgson. The funniest part is when she says “maybe we should be drinking red cordial instead of water, so it looks like blood”. Red cordial is the last thing she needs.
During 192020, Hodgson leaps into the crowd, resting precariously on the thin edge of the security fence. The crowd all rush towards her, many in the hope to touching her and some with the genuine intention to help her not to fall. Held up by the security guards and several fans, Hodgson jokingly exclaims “I’ve never had that many men touching me at once” with a cheeky, almost proud grin on her face, much like the expression you’d expect to see on a four year old who has just figured out how to outsmart his parents.
The band sweeps through a number of energised renditions of tracks from their three albums, with an obvious highlight on the most recent, Secret Rituals. The setlist includes Secret Rituals, Rock Boys, Message, The Night Won’t Start Without Us, Sukkafish, Two Kinds of Right, Trampoline, Sweet Dreams, Turn Me On and several more.
When the crowd hears the distinctive opening riff of Aw Yeah, there’s an immediate surge of electricity that sweeps the room. This song is a chant to lead an army and Hodgson’s charisma is overwhelmingly persuasive. Hodgson is capable of conveying emotion through her whole body. She is in total control of everything. Her voice never quivers from perfection. The convulsions of her body merely serve to intensify the overall product. She seems both weightless and completely grounded at the same time.
There’s no shortage of entertaining stage banter by Hodgson, either (Patterson and touring drummer, Ben Marshall, barely whisper a word throughout the set, but their cheeky smiles are always validating whatever Hodgson says). Perhaps encouraged by the costumes of the crowd, Hodgson somehow gets many members of the audience to imitate a cat licking the back of its paw, then rubbing an imaginary ear. She’s seriously impressed with her influence over the audience at this point. “That’s how I know what I own, now” jokes Hodgson. “One day, I’m going to have an army of cute boys dressed as cats”.
Burn Bridges is the track that truly gets the crowd going mad (and they certainly weren’t exhibiting much sanity before that). With collective hand clapping in which every member of the audience participates (a rare feat, especially in Melbourne where most people are too cool for that), and an army of booming backing vocals, this track is undeniably the highlight of the evening.
At the end of the set, further propelling the absurd geniality of the band, Hodgson takes the time to tear the setlist off the stage and give it to whichever fan she had deemed most deserving, thus preventing the wild rush for the stage and eventual bitterness.
After a costume change (well, Hodgson has changed her shirt to something less bloodstained and more retro chic), The Grates return to belt out a few more hits. The encore consists of Seek Me and crowd-favourite, Inside Outside, both perfectly executed and accompanied by some Hodgson crowd-surfing. The surfing aspect is perhaps hindered by the crowd’s apparent desires to embrace her in a giant hug. It’s quite sweet and is a fitting way to end a grate evening – cheesy pun intended!
Lara Moates
Clad in ponchos and glow-in-the-dark-shoes, Last Dinosaurs barely look old enough to be permitted entry into the venue. Fittingly, their music is youthfully exuberant surf-pop, centred around punchy strumming patterns and catchy choruses. The band has just arrived after spending two solid days driving. They are clearly tired and this is apparent in their performance. Musically, they are great, but at times, the band members seem to blend into the stage scenery.
Aptly, many members of the crowd are sporting costumes in celebration of Halloween. To add to the theatrics, the Hi-Fi plays X-Files theme music to set a spooky scene. Even if one wouldn’t necessarily consider paranoid conspiracies about government alien cover-ups to be relating to Halloween, it’s an entertaining idea nonetheless and it does contribute to the ambiance to some extent.
After the stage has sat void of human life for more than thirty minutes, the lights finally descend. Typical for The Grates, they are an atomic bomb of dangerous energy from the very second they burst onto stage. John Patterson’s smile could not be any larger, and Patience Hodgson is leaping wildly, clearly enthused by….well, she has so much energy, we can assume she’s enthused by everything. Dressed in bloodstained white cotton shirts, the band looks like they’d engaged in some slasher-film-style-stab-a-thon, backstage. Spoiler alert! Think Billy and Stu from the finale Scream – that’s how The Grates look tonight.
With a frantically feverish vigour, the band bursts into Science is Golden. The crowd erupts (it’s safe to assume that this review will be full of bomb analogies. The Grates are literally explosive). Hodgson’s voice is seriously strong. She can scream and screech, with a incontrovertible power, not dissimilar to Karen O. However, the crowd of the sold-out Hi-Fi Bar and Ballroom in Melbourne can surprisingly challenge and overpower Hodgson in a sing-along. At times, her voice is completely drowned out by the vociferous audience. The band notices this and delighted smiles are plentiful.
Putting aside the gorgeous indie pop songs with a fierce punk edge, the indisputable draw-card to any show by The Grates is the energised antics of Hodgson. Her liveliness is seemingly limitless. She leaps and bounds all across the stage, jumping furiously fast, while shaking her head, all the while, not missing a single word and singing in perfect pitch.
Her short skirt draws attention to her long slender legs (but not in a perverse way). Throughout the night, it’s fair to assume that every conceivable leg flex that a human is capable of (and many that are probably stretching physiological limits), is attempted and successfully executed by Hodgson. The funniest part is when she says “maybe we should be drinking red cordial instead of water, so it looks like blood”. Red cordial is the last thing she needs.
During 192020, Hodgson leaps into the crowd, resting precariously on the thin edge of the security fence. The crowd all rush towards her, many in the hope to touching her and some with the genuine intention to help her not to fall. Held up by the security guards and several fans, Hodgson jokingly exclaims “I’ve never had that many men touching me at once” with a cheeky, almost proud grin on her face, much like the expression you’d expect to see on a four year old who has just figured out how to outsmart his parents.
The band sweeps through a number of energised renditions of tracks from their three albums, with an obvious highlight on the most recent, Secret Rituals. The setlist includes Secret Rituals, Rock Boys, Message, The Night Won’t Start Without Us, Sukkafish, Two Kinds of Right, Trampoline, Sweet Dreams, Turn Me On and several more.
When the crowd hears the distinctive opening riff of Aw Yeah, there’s an immediate surge of electricity that sweeps the room. This song is a chant to lead an army and Hodgson’s charisma is overwhelmingly persuasive. Hodgson is capable of conveying emotion through her whole body. She is in total control of everything. Her voice never quivers from perfection. The convulsions of her body merely serve to intensify the overall product. She seems both weightless and completely grounded at the same time.
There’s no shortage of entertaining stage banter by Hodgson, either (Patterson and touring drummer, Ben Marshall, barely whisper a word throughout the set, but their cheeky smiles are always validating whatever Hodgson says). Perhaps encouraged by the costumes of the crowd, Hodgson somehow gets many members of the audience to imitate a cat licking the back of its paw, then rubbing an imaginary ear. She’s seriously impressed with her influence over the audience at this point. “That’s how I know what I own, now” jokes Hodgson. “One day, I’m going to have an army of cute boys dressed as cats”.
Burn Bridges is the track that truly gets the crowd going mad (and they certainly weren’t exhibiting much sanity before that). With collective hand clapping in which every member of the audience participates (a rare feat, especially in Melbourne where most people are too cool for that), and an army of booming backing vocals, this track is undeniably the highlight of the evening.
At the end of the set, further propelling the absurd geniality of the band, Hodgson takes the time to tear the setlist off the stage and give it to whichever fan she had deemed most deserving, thus preventing the wild rush for the stage and eventual bitterness.
After a costume change (well, Hodgson has changed her shirt to something less bloodstained and more retro chic), The Grates return to belt out a few more hits. The encore consists of Seek Me and crowd-favourite, Inside Outside, both perfectly executed and accompanied by some Hodgson crowd-surfing. The surfing aspect is perhaps hindered by the crowd’s apparent desires to embrace her in a giant hug. It’s quite sweet and is a fitting way to end a grate evening – cheesy pun intended!
Lara Moates