Klaxons @ The Forum, Melbourne(20/10/2007)

Sun 28th Oct, 2007 in Gig Reviews

So Klaxons recently won the Mercury Music Prize, hey? But how would they measure up live? If Saturday night’s performance is anything to go on then the answer is pretty darn spectacular, even despite the group obviously lacking visual experience.

Local boys Damn Arms began the night’s proceedings with a pretty solid 45 minutes of progressive synth rock. The lads shared around lead vocals for each song, which seemed to mix things up a bit and the four-piece looked comfortable on the big Forum stage as they danced about, with most of their songs seeming to be well received. Unfortunately, the work of the drum kit could barely be noticed above the overpowering synths and bass, so the group’s percussion seemed almost useless.

The front dance floor area of the capacity filled Forum Theatre was solidly packed by half ten when the Klaxons were to appear. The anticipation was obviously rife, and rightly so considering fans had to wait over two months for the groups rescheduled Australian appearances after a broken angle hindered their Splendour in the Grass appearance and accompanying shows.

Luckily for the fans, they had one of Melbourne’s finest venues for the evening, the beautiful Forum Theatre to keep them visually happy. Lucky, because the Klaxons provided very little in the way of visuals, which is kind of disappointing considering their hugely pop-fuelled music would assume some real brightness. Perhaps some strobes or form of laser lighting would have sufficed the brightness factor, or even a backdrop, but really no one seemed too fazed about it in the end.

The Forum erupted in delight as the four Englishmen hit the stage and burst out into the Melbourne-adoring introduction. The crowd simply stood and watched though, and it was not until the all too familiar “DJ…” echoed through the theatre that everyone decided to go mental. – œAtlantis to Interzone’ set the standard for the fast, super-energised tunes that would fill the next hour.

From that point on, the group had to do little more than release the slew of hits from their sole album, Myths of the Near Future. – œGravity’s Rainbow’, – œMagick’, – œGolden Scans’ and – œTotem On The Timeline’ all kept the floor of the Forum bounding up and down and yelling along. The distinct introduction to each Klaxon song brought about more excitement as the set went on, no more than the percussion-fuelled lead-in to – œTwo Receivers’, which arguably highlighted the evening.

The band themselves seemed to love the response, bassist/vocalist Jamie Reynolds running about the stage and yelling some accent heavy banter toward the crowd in between tracks, whilst keyboardist/vocalist James Righton and lead guitarist Simon Taylor-Davis ( whose big black hair makes him look like a stray member of the Horrors ) stood comfortably either side of stage.
– œIt’s Not Over Yet’ (Klaxons cover of the Grace song – œNot Over Yet’) finished the set far to early for the liking of most punters and their return to stage for an encore track, – œFour Horsemen of 2012’ hardly seemed enough. The hour had not even ticked over before the mob of sweaty fans watched the Klaxons disappear.

Klaxons presented a hugely powerful show that seems to have set a pretty exciting anticipation for when they return with new material, hopefully sooner than we know!