Check out the photo gallery from this top night!
Providing us with two generous sets of electro eclecticism, Sam La More successfully worked the crowd to a crescendo of dancing delight. A great choice for a Pnau warm up, leg stretches and crunches included. The most enchanting moment however, was when he spun some of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds much to the glee of early punters.
Straight after opening with a hyperactive cover of Salt n Pepa’s Push It by main support band, Gold Coast teen popsters, Operator Please, some boofhead screamed out “Operator Please shut the f@#k up!” The singer, Amandah, responded in kind with a, “Get f#@&d c@#t!” And that was about the extent of band-audience interaction for the evening. I talked to the sound guy after the set who told me that she was sick with a throat infection and didn’t even want to do the set. To be honest, it probably would have been better if they hadn’t gone on. I don’t want to be unkind to them, as they are a young band who will soon enough find out how much it sucks to be raped by the record business and churned up in the machine, but it’s not a good idea to be hostile to your audience. You will not win fans that way. Luckily, all bad vibes were swept away in the second Sam La More set.
Bounding onto the stage in a blur of projections and electro-synth pops and squeaks, Pnau were infectious from the get-go. Fresh from Splendour, the band were in top shape and were flawless in their delivery. Pete Mayes and Nick Littlemore were supported onstage by a drummer and a dancing strawberry, sun and bird (a galah maybe, it was hard to tell for sure). For the more karaoke-inclined, the lyrics splashed over the projections would have been a welcome touch.
If there’s one thing that really surprised me, it was how much I was overcome by the primordial desire to lose myself in the communion of dancing with wild abandon. If Pnau were transported back to ancient tribal days, they would no doubt be leading the fire songs and hunting dances. They had a powerful force working for them that was palpable and irresistible. So we danced. And then we danced some more. And then we kept dancing.
A big highlight for this reviewer was when Pip Brown aka Ladyhawke joined the band for a wonderful, heartrendingly warm rendition of Embrace. There was a spirit of compassionate love in the room that I wish could have been carved up and served to the love-lost, lonely and forlorn souls who missed out on the experience, and I swear it wasn’t due to any presence of illicit substances. It was a devine moment, like being at a post-Splendour electro love-in hosted by Pnau.
All too soon, they wound up the communion of love and electro-divinity, returning to stage once more for the encore, which was a fittingly-rousing Wild Strawberries. Stalking out into the cool night air, we asked ourselves was it possible to feel this good about life and not be overawed?
