Clap-a-thons, synthesizer volume that blows your ears off, skinny nerds gripping onto guitars wildly and hitting cowbells with drums sticks; these are but a few perks of a standard Cut Copy gig. And last night, it was Adelaide’s turn for this experience.
Following the national success of recent album release In Ghosts Colours, the lads kicked off the fifth stop of their Australian tour last night at HQ with The Shocking Pinks and The Juan Macleans.
Although the first performance at any gig is always bound to have a stale reception, New Zealand’s The Shocking Pinks didn’t do too bad. The sound engineering of the HQ complex was at an ear bleeding volume tonight, and although the first track certainly broke the silence of the venue it also left people retreating from the stage due to the unbearable loudness. As the crowd’s eardrums began to brave the music, however, things quickly started to warm up.
Next up on the bill were New York electronica outfit The Juan Macleans. Now, here is a group that had no problem with HQ’s ridiculous volume levels – and rather played them up to their advantage. With no hesitation, their introduced themselves with an immediate thrust into drums and some ambient synth that was so loud I began to lose my voice trying to yell over it. The group didn’t seem to mind the noise though, particularly the drummer, who was clearly lavishing every cymbal crash that brought him once inch closer to deafness. Yet despite the group’s energy, the dancefloor did little more than stir. It was only when vocalist Nancy approached the stage dressed in a strange, full length frilled bib and looking cute as a button that ears began to perk up. Surprisingly for her size, she had a real pair of lungs and belted out some big vocals for songs like You Can’t Have It Both Ways. Although her tone was a little off at times, she put on a good show and I felt sad that this group received such little crowd attention overall.
As The Juan Maclean’s started wrapping up, the stage surge began. As the last few punters were piling up to the barrier to secure themselves a good dancing spot, four weedy youths with side-parts walked on. Enter Cut Copy.
Given the raving reviews of this group in music media over the past few months, they certainly had a lot riding on this performance. And thankfully, they lived up to their reputation. For a non-smoking venue, the venue was dense with mist (thanks to a smoke machine, I assume) when the three Melbourne lads finally walked on stage. This seemed to create an illusion of a godly aura around the band members – or at least the girls screaming wildly below seemed to think so. By the end of opening track Future, a track from their latest album, interpretative dancing and arm waving from the audience was well underway. This probably had something to do with vocalist Dan Whitford constantly encouraging the audience to clap in synch with him. This was rather amusing, given Whitford’s twiggy physique. To give a visual of the scenario, imagine a stick insect conducting a group of sweaty, heaving oxen – who let’s keep in mind passed through a gun detector to get in the doors of HQ tonight.
Performing a variety of songs from In Ghosts Colours, one notable track was Lights & Music which triggered video imagery in the stage backdrop of a women scratching off facepaint. Other favourites like So Haunted and Hearts on Fire were included, each smoothly transitioning from one to the other. At one point guitarist Tim Hoey scuffled onto his guitar lead, resulting in few seconds of deafening feedback – but perhaps this can be left to the roadies to blame. Finally wrapping up with Feel the Love, its ethereal keyboard scales and catchy “Ooh, ooh, ooh’s” provided the perfect encore as the audience exhausted their last few dance moves. People definitely felt the love.
