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The Old Museum - Fri Feb 26
It’s an all ages event (like your Gen X reviewer doesn’t feel old enough already!) which is a savvy bit of planning on the part of Last Dinosaurs, a fresh-faced indie-pop band with a clearly youthful following. The group also take advantage of the venue’s architecture (more about that later) and cater to the school disco sensibilities of the audience by having DJs spin dance tracks and hits from the likes of Jay-Z and Alicia.
First, Comic Sans turn in an almost frenzied performance, big on audience participation (always popular with an all ages crowd) and an approach to songsmanship that resembles PiL tunes reduced to hopscotch chants. They seem to get by on youthful exuberance and not a great deal more.
Headliners Last Dinosaurs are launching their EP Back From The Dead and while they don’t go anywhere other indie kids haven’t gone before, there’s a subtle sophistication at the heart of their teen-friendly guitar pop. The arrangements tick all the contemporary indie pop boxes – serrated guitar riffs, clean cut vocals, slinky post-Duran Duran bass parts etc – and the melodies have a vibrant, sherbet-y fizz at their heart. Guitarist/singer Sean Caskey is no classically-trained knockout as a vocalist, but he’s surprisingly versatile, effortlessly handling the up-there tenor of The Cure’s Just Like Heaven. There’s humour, too, as they bash out the theme from their beloved Seinfeld, adding Steely Dan-esque guitar solos to the ubiquitous slap bass. The high ceiling allows the band to add mini-planetarium lighting for a couple of numbers, while a miniature mezzanine level provides band friends with the perfect opportunity to rain confetti over an already-giddy crowd. When the Afrobeat-tinged Honolulu emerges, the crowd goes wild, air punching along with the song’s plentiful “heys!”. Which kinda sums up what Last Dinosaurs are all about – pop music that ain’t real deep, but shucks it’s adorable.
MATT THROWER
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