Hitting the road to plug their recently released debut album, The Great Depression, Plastic Palace Alice managed to gather a more than decent crowd for their Melbourne leg of their ‘Summer’s a Stranger Tour’, showing their consistent touring over the past twelve months has paid off for the Melbourne six piece. A duo of additional local Melbourne bands – Oh Mercy and Greasers – provided the support on the night.
Up first was Oh Mercy, a four piece whose delightful pop has recently started gaining a fair bit of attention. The four sounded great with their warm sound and catchy lyrics being portrayed best by the vocals of Alex Gow, and complemented with duel harmonies. The problem though was that they didn’t look excited in the slightest – a fact that was probably mostly to do with the massive lack of early comers.
Next up were Greasers, another Melbourne trio that bounced around as they rushed through their on-the-spot set list of garage pop tunes. The fact that singer Dominic Byrne hails from Little Red sparked responses that the band is a copy, yet whilst it is true that the Little Red boys are trying to take over the world, such conclusions aren’t greatly accurate, as Greasers are definitely in their own element, with their heavier, jangly guitars and rough harmonisations making for a much rockier project. Greasers were in a somewhat opposite predicament to Oh Mercy though, in that their energy was super high, but it was at the expense of their sound, with Byrne’s voice sounding rather strained, and Richard Bradbeer’s harmonisations flat.
A gloomy haze created by smoke machines filled the EBC as Plastic Palace Alice entered, setting the mood for their atmospheric opener. The six piece were a spectacle from the beginning, and their versatile instrumentation and harmonisations (which put the first acts to shame) remained consistently strong from the beginning to the end of their set. Moreover, the constant smoke filling the stage meant that the EBC house lights were able to maintain the eeriness perfectly, which made the group much more visually appealing.
The set was all about The Great Depression, and Rob McDowell made sure he filled the in between moments with as many plugs for the record as he could – “Cause it’s all about us,” he appropriately proclaimed before No Shame. The constant self promotion was taken lightly though, and judging by the quality of the songs then such advertising would have definitely resulted in the band being fed for the next week or so.
The haunting lyrics and gorgeous arrangements found throughout the album were portrayed greatly throughout the set. Whilst for the most part the tracks remained on this darkish theme, all of a sudden the boys and girls took a different angle and belted out the Jefferson Airplane hit Somebody to Love? Unexpected for many amongst the setlist, the cover was a more than welcome addition.
The first single off the album, Empire Falls followed, with a handful of punters opting for a dance, whilst the slower tune, The Girl Who Cried Wolf, had more of an entrancing quality as the multi part vocal harmonies took hold. All the while throughout the set Emily Taylor swapped and changed percussive additions, and included violin here and there, whilst guitarist Huw Murdoch rammed about, exerting energy levels of the rest of the band combined. Harvest Song and Carrion and the encore performance of The Straight Song were additional high selling points for the band.
Plastic Palace Alice gave a pretty good sales pitch for their debut, which has received mixed reviews. Regardless, the musical extravagance of their live show has definitely evolved over the past several months, and the group has defined themselves as a band to watch.
