Photo: Madeleine Marx-Bentley

The ink is still wet on The Holiday’s contract with Liberation Music and their enthusiasm is palpable. You may remember this Indie four-piece from such commercials as Clearasil (cast your mind back to their song Telephone last year). This should give you a good idea of the feel of tonight’s set – Teenage Fanclub-flavoured indie/rock-lite.

In contrast, Children Collide are more concerned with creating a sonic impression than performing by rote, Johnny, Heath and Ryan occasionally slip non-descript straight punk and indiscernible screamo vocals. However, Cannibal and Brave Robot prove the band’s talent for high-energy rock, while We Are Amphibious has even indie purists singing along. A little more polish combined with their inventive approach (at one point Johnny screams the vocals into his guitar strings) would go a long way.

With a ‘G’day! G’day! G’day!’ three part a cappella harmony intro, The Wombats, looking more like chess club champions than pop/rock chart toppers, make the requisite pommy comment about the heat before launching into a scorching rendition of Lost In The Post - harmonic ‘ooohs’ pitch perfect and Matt Murphy’s vocals in fine Liverpudlian form. Losing no momentum, the trio brings out the album’s drawcards, keeping the crowd bouncing with Kill The Director. It’s a sing-a-long celebration of love, loss and dancing like maniacs tonight, the fun continuing with School Uniforms, Party In A Forest (Where’s Laura?), the roof-lifting My First Wedding and Moving To New York. As the set shifts gears and slows down, some legs may be enjoying the respite, but I find the lull a little lacklustre. New song How To Pack Your Bags And Leave is unfortunately a little average, and with almost the entire set comprised of songs from their album I wished my favourite marsupials had delivered more (both in set length and variety). An encore of Patricia The Stripper and a Norwegian version of the Postman Pat theme leave a parting surprise, though not the adrenaline-injected finale I was expecting.

CAMILLA JONES

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*