Little Red @ HiFi Bar,Melbourne (8/5/09)

Fri 15th May, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Little Red are a quintessentially Melbourne band. Skinny black jeans, slightly over sized check shirts, black brogues and suitably disheveled hair screams stereotypes. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that they must live somewhere in the North Melbourne-North Fitzroy-Collingwood ark and one of them would own a 1970-80s European car.

Despite these apparent trend-following tendencies, there is something distinctly untrendy about their sound. I mean this not as a criticism. There are very few bands, be they Melbournian or not, who are whipping out good, simple, tight poppy rock. This is evident from the number of clubs or pubs that would play rock’n’roll of a Thursday-Sunday night. Contrast that with the amount of clubs playing electro.

The Little Red boys are testament to the maxim that anything done well, no matter how trendy, will attract a following. And by last Friday night’s crowd at the HiFi bar, there are plenty of fans.

LR took the stage with little fuss and jumped straight into Flight Song. If you were to shut your eyes, you could have been at festival hall circa 1965: screaming girls, undistorted guitar, simple rhythms and three-part harmonies. If you then were to open them and witness Tom Hartney’s hip and leg gyrations, it could be Elvis Presley, albeit a skinny and blonde. The Reds also belted out Misty I, Jackie Cooper and Witchdoctor, along with some new tracks, the names of which I have no idea. The new material however, stays true to what has made band successful so far and their new album will carry few surprises. In fact, if Phil Spector is looking for a way to kill some time while in the slammer, perhaps he could master the tracks for their upcoming second album

Throughout the set there was plenty of clapping along as drummer Taka Honda moved from playing the drums to standing on top of them. He clearly loves life though, as you could not wipe the smile off his face during the entire gig. The one acoustic track during the set was sans drums, and his presence was missed.

Perched on the mezzanine level, I noticed that the crowd were not moving in ways we come to expect in the late noughties. Gone were the head nods and lifeless shuffling. Instead, there was bouncing, arms in the air, the occasional pelvic thrust and smiles all round. Unashamed happiness. And this was similarly exuded by the lads on stage. This was none more evident than during Coca Cola where there was rather more than a mere wall of sound created once the crowd joined in.

There was an encore and LR concluded the night with It’s Alright. The crowd were baying for more, but both Adrian Beltrame and Dominic Byrne had guitar strap sweat marks, which is a sure fire sign that they have given their all.

Hopefully Little Red’s success will inspire more rock’n’roll bands. Let’s hope so if they can put on a show like Friday’s.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE