In a line up rivalling Sydney’s recent Come Together festival (and then some), a huge list of talents took over the Metro Theatre this weekend, providing Sydney with 7 hours of quality music. A mini-festival by any standard… and all for $40! Can we “Save FBi” every month?
THE JEZABELS were just getting things warmed up in the main room when I arrived, and they wasted no time in putting smiles on the faces of everyone in the room. When they perform, it’s like someone took a blanket, filled it with warmth and happiness, and covered you in it. I only wish they were on later in the evening so I could have shared this blanket of happiness with a larger audience. I can’t recommend The Jezabels highly enough. One of Sydney’s best.
PALACE OF FIRE followed, delivering pretty much the same set to their recent Opera House shows – remaining just as impressive (albeit in a far less impressive environment). Can’t wait to hear how these guys develop.
Click here for a full review of their Opera House performance.
As 8.40pm quickly approached, the room started filling up with more than enough of the underaged, here to witness a rare live sighting of MUSCLES. Indeed, it’s been quite a while since any of us have had the opportunity to see him perform, and it was quite good fun indeed. Especially considering everyone around me knew every words to every song. I knew he had gotten popular, but the dedication still surprised me. Despite expecting to dislike the set, it was a highlight of the night thanks to the energetic crowd.
If Muscles got the boys and girls into the Metro, then it was the MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS who kept them there. While they probably would have been better served closing the night out, the electro juggernauts (pun definitely intended) didn’t hold anything back in their gut-wrenchingly exciting set. Having been playing festival after festival over the last year or two, it was a thrill to see them in the same (reasonably intimate) venue where they first started making waves 4 years ago. Except now, they come hand-in-hand with legions of fans and massive stage presence. They played a truly crowd pleasing set, with favourite “Tombstone” making an appearance, as well as Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” serving as an intro for the anthem of recent times, “Into The Galaxy”. Surprisingly, they were the only band to pull out a MJ cover tonight (as far as I saw), although his memory was served well by many a DJ, including RO SHAM BO, who followed.
One band continuing to desperately make their presence known are BLUEJUICE, a band whose average music is improved ever so slightly by their boundless on-stage energy. I can’t say I’m ever bored by their sets, I’ll give them that much. And for many of the younger individuals in the room, it would be at the end of this set when they’d return home, leaving DECODER RING to perform to a deservedly respectful, older crowd.
Teasing material off their new double LP They Blind the Stars, And the Wild Team, the band performed with their traditional double video background, giving the crowd a much-needed come down. With ambient music full of such beauty, it’s hard not to close your eyes and drift into a land of dreams while Decoder Ring perform. Thankfully, the mesmerising video display (still with plenty of horses) kept ones eyes fixated on the stage, almost in a trance-like state.
I may have seen them half a dozen times, but it’s always like seeing them the first time, and it’s always a pleasure. But the come down wasn’t to last long, with Sydney’s original indie darlings, DAPPLED CITIES, hitting the stage with the announcement: “This is going to be surprisingly awesome”. And indeed it was.
Unlike Decoder Ring, seeing Dappled Cities a second time is much like seeing them the first, fourth, fifth time, and so on. Well at least this used to be the case. With a barrage of new material at their feet, and new found confidence after touring the world, this was a Dappled Cities as you’ve never seen them before. The new material, while maintaining their signature playful nature, demonstrated a new level of maturity that came through impressively well on stage. Meanwhile, their older numbers have developed into finely tuned pieces of music, often unrecognisable from when we first heard them, many years ago. Dappled Cities are back with a vengeance, and we all better get excited.
GRAFTON PRIMARY were given the honours of closing out the night – something which probably should have been given to either Decoder Ring or Midnight Juggernauts … it was quite an odd timetable I must admit. While I was expecting nothing but trashy electro from the GP set, I have to say I was fairly impressed by their performance. Sure, my expectations were very (very very) low, and their recorded tunes are of unarguably low quality – but whatever they did on stage, they did it right, and I found myself turning to my mate and saying “I’m actually kind of enjoying this?” But shhhh, let’s keep that between us.
As I’ve only covered the main stage so far, I must digress that I didn’t venture into THE LAIR too often, but the room was fairly often packed – especially when Cassette Kids took to the stage. Having had my fair share of GP, I opted to finish out the night with ANDREW RHODES & VICTORIA ZAMORA’s DJ set, and with a mix of tunes from Grizzly Bear (man I love the new album!), The Beatles, and favourite of the night Michael Jackson, they helped send the night out with the bang that the Midnight Juggernauts probably should have been given the duty of.
Oh and did I mention the fact they were basically throwing CD’s out the door with dollar coin donations? I left the place with a massive pile of albums for next-to-nothing. Bargains all over the place! I said it before and I’ll say it again: let’s keep on saving FBi. This month was just too much fun.
