The Bravery and Van She both brought their 80s influenced pop rock to the Corner Hotel in Richmond, but to vastly different effect.

Arriving in time to hear another contribution to the strange and perplexing resurgence of 80s synth pop rock from Australia, Van She, I immediately noticed the age of the crowd. They are young. Plenty of sharp haircuts, tight jeans and the latest cardigans. It is a hip, slick crowd, somewhere between Triple J listeners and Gossip Girl fans. And Van She are a hip, slick band, sounding like a mix of Duran Duran and well, every other pop band from the 80s. In fact it seems more like they are ripping off the bands that are around now that sound like the 80s. If this was the 80s then Van She would have been awesome. Their songs would have been fresh, original and exciting. People would have been dancing. But not here. Here Van She are predictable and boring. And the pretty young crowd can only muster polite applause. Because it just isn’t right.

Every year or so there are new trends. We’ve gone through riot grrrls to girl power, white rappers to white trash, nu metal to classic metal, 90s bands to reformed bands from the 90s. Recently there has been a resurgence in 80s tinged synth rock. Be it the emotive dance beats of Bloc Party or the darker sounding Interpol, many acts now seem more than proud to flaunt the fact that they grew up in the 80s. Often it is done to great effect (the above mentioned bands clearly are examples). But Van She are harder to like. It almost seems they are making music for the trend, not the other way around. When all these kids stop paying for expensive haircuts and move out of home into the real world, will they still be listening to Van She? Or the f**king Galvatrons?! For that matter will Van She even be making music like this, or will they move along to the next trend? Or just moving off.

It is simply a shame that such energetic beat driven music barely registered with the musicians, let alone the punters. Granted the tall-thin-pouty-Billy-Idol-look-alike bass player can certainly thump out a great bass line, and the white-knitted-jumper-wearing-Lego-man-haircut-with-moustache-guy held it all together from behind the keys, and the singer almost started to dance during one of the songs whilst constantly brushing his fringe out of his eyes, and the drums were fat. But did anyone really care? Maybe Van She should stick to remixing classic 80s songs, instead of writing originals that pale in comparison.

Van She did not impress, and it honestly did not bode well for the Bravery. But almost as soon as they hit the stage the energy in the room shifted, and it was infectious. There was genuine applause, and dancing, and singing. The temperature rose. Now we were at a show.

The Bravery burst onto stage with the natural swagger and confidence that possibly only American bands summon best. However that is where their Americanism ends. Sounding like a drunken cross between Razorlight, the Cure and Hard Fi, these lads instantly left the support in their dust. Tearing through a set of tight, punchy pop anthems, one couldn’t help but smile. The crowd was absolutely loving it. Splitting their set between recent albums The Sun and the Moon and their eponymous debut, we were graced with all the energy, emotion, guitar solos, beats and pure pop rock perfection rarely seen in this new wave of wannabes. Ironic since upon debut the Bravery were themselves criticised for sounding like a shallow version of the Killers. But where the Killers have toned down their UK sounding synth rock and look toward the wide open spaces of their homeland, the Bravery have embraced their sound, fusing it with their sarcastic swagger to come up with ever sharper and more enjoyable music.

Perhaps torn between a willingness to prove bitter critics wrong yet impress the Gossip Girls of New York and beyond, the Bravery have grown as a band. They are more rounded, more mature as writers. Songs off of The Sun and the Moon were not yet as recognisable to many of the crowd, but none were disappointed. Tracks including the anthemic Believe and Time Won’t Let Me Go sat comfortably alongside the summer pop of This Is Not The End and Bad Sun, spliced with the punchier dance rock of Every Word Is A Knife In My Ear, No Brakes, Unconditional, and breakthrough hit An Honest Mistake. But perhaps the highlight was the slow burning The Ocean, apparently written on the band’s last tour of Australia.

The Bravery are clearly comfortable on stage, and enjoy their rock star status. When someone in the crowd yelled the response “play Honest Mistake” after front man Sam asked for requests, he turned to the rest of the band and sarcastically asked them if they were going to play it. It put the guy right back in his place, just like all those who ask for the so called hits should be. But the singer then invited another punter onstage to sing a song they had not played for some time, but like him the rest of the band had forgotten it. At once gentle and angry, condescending and uplifting, the front man epitomizes the band.

The Bravery are certainly guilty of belonging to the same new wave of 80s influenced pop rock Van She so dismally adhere to, but because they bring a definite humanity to their songs and the stage, this reviewer was impressed. They have made this sound their own, injecting it with the right amounts of passion, attitude and emotion. Stop, Drop and Roll, the Bravery are on fire…

CHECK OUT PHOTOS OF ALL THE 80s INFLUENCED POP ROCK ANTICS HERE