I arrived at the Metro Theatre for this phenomenal (and criminally undersold) triple bill to hear a couple of new tracks from Sydney’s Guineafowl, opening up the night in their usual classy fashion. The new track sounded promising, keeping us on our toes for their long awaited debut LP, hopefully being released later this year. Of course, tracks from their EP were included in the mix though I wasn’t fortunate enough to catch them!
Givers, one of the surprise favourites of Laneway over the weekend, were next, a young band from Lafayette, Louisiana, whose debut record In Light won acclaim from all corners of the globe. The five piece feature the wonderful Tiffany Lamson on lead vocal duties… also taking on a second set of drums, an electric ukulele and even a xylophone (in “Ceiling Of Plankton”). The following note was justifiably written in my phone: “shit this girl is talented”. She wasn’t the only one who played multiple instrument duties – the flute and more made appearances in between guitars from the other members.
They played through a good mix of tracks with a high amount of energy (not to mention as the worked amazingly in sync – this is a well rehearsed band who make it look easy), plus a cover of Talking Heads’ “Girlfriend Is Better”. The only problem with set was the sound – though the instrumentation came through clear, the vocals were muffled and you could rarely understand what the band was saying. Doesn’t reflect poorly on the band themselves, but was a pity to have a technical issue hinder what was otherwise a wonderful set.
This problem also hindered the set of headliners Portugal. The Man, who opened with the first track off their phenomenal record of last year, In The Mountain In The Cloud, “So American”. The rest of the set focused on the new record (their sixth!), but dabbled in their back catalogue as well, keeping the fans in the crowd (and there were a lot who knew every word to every song) happy … with a cover of The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” and David Bowie’s “All The Young Dudes”, which closed out the night, thrown in for good measure.
Much like on the latest record, some tracks flowed right into the next, while at other times they stopped to say a few words to the crowd. “The Sun” went down nicely, and reminded me of The Paper Scissors. “Save Me” and “All Your Light (Times Like These)” were both personal highlights, as were “Sleep Forever” and “Got It All (This Can’t Be Living Now)”. The encore featured three tracks including the Bowie cover (which was brilliant, I might add), and another favourite of mine, “Head Is A Flame (Cool With It)”.
Though they suffered the same poor vocal mix that hindered Givers earlier in the night, this did little to take away from what was an impressive set from a band who aren’t nearly as popular as they should be. Unlike Givers, they pretty much stuck to the same instruments for the whole set, although the backing guitarist would occasionally break out on a second set of drums. Much like Givers, however, this is a truly tight ensemble who know how to create beautifully layered instrumentation while making it look easy. They even manage to get our toes tapping in the process. Success! Here’s hoping we get them back to our shores sooner rather than later – perhaps with better sound!
