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Yves Klein Blue are one of this year’s – œit’ bands gaining airplay and momentum on the back of their track Polka featuring on ads in current rotation. The act put on a show which certainly had its moments but showed they still need to grow as a band. Whilst they packed out Jive they were ultimately outshone by main support Philadelphia Grand Jury.

The Shiny Brights opened the night. The act are gradually growing in stature as one of the upcoming indie pop rock bands around Adelaide. The band is getting tight and has a reasonable upbeat stage presence. However, whilst their material has a punchy element, they don’t possess too many inspiring hook. They are is yet to define their – œX’ factor and verge on a generic style of indie, which grounds them in the present but doesn’t offer anything particularly new or edgy. They are a reasonably professional outfit though and are not out of place as first support to travelling indie acts.

Main support, Philadelphia Grand Jury are a lively and entertaining support act and their tendency to pick up regular touring spots is indicative of this. They had a professional, perfectly weighted sound with beautiful vocal articulation, crisp guitar parts and a hard-hitting punchy rhythm section. On stage the drummer and bassist were very animated with comically expressive facial gestures. Often the bassist would eccentrically glare at the crowd whilst comfortably working the length of the stage furiously. The singer has a strong clear voice with a 60’s American intonation not dissimilar to the Fountains of Wayne, asidet from the helium swallowed tone. Like that band his edge seems to have a nerd rock element to it which also evokes images of Weezer. The pre-recorded spoken parts of the set worked well whilst not being overly witty. Overall the bands rolled out plenty of strong songs including some Triple J staples, all of which were tight, sharp and accessible. The move by the bassist to set up some guitar feedback, play bass over than then jump into the crowd had the audience riveted. As did his move to run around the entire venue and out the exit.

Yves Klein Blue are an interesting act with a singer who has a strong engaging persona which at times appears like it hasn’t yet been entirely defined. His enthusiasm is undeniable and his attempts at engaging with the crowd are to be admired. His get up is clean cut retro which doesn’t work too well with the rest of the band’s visibly mismatched grunge indie theme.

The band’s guitar and drum sound for the most part, aside from an early piano number, lacks clarity and crispness contrasting badly with the act before. Their songs in the main don’t rely on strong melodic hooks and are built around expansive thoughtful lyrical phrases. As a result the music tends to require more involved listening and requires more focus on the singer, neither of which are entirely bad aspects, given his strong Strokes esque voice (extra husky tonight he explained due to a sudden cold.) The use of piano scattered throughout the set tended to bring the stronger emotive songs out and provided some highlights.

Easily the best song in the set was Getting Wise with its fantastic chorus melody providing their strongest hook. Perhaps it could have been the best end to the set. As it was, the band finished on their main hit Polka, a song you guessed it, is based around a polka beat with another strong lyrical element. The track gained momentum although at times it seemed a little laboured with the hook getting lost in the instrumentation. To cap off the very end of the set, the bassist dived off a stage side speaker, knocking over some of the drum kit.

Overall the band has promise and their popularity is understandable. Yet the overall perfomance was a little underwhelming and was saved by the singer’s charisma. Maybe in years to come the band will take their game to a higher level.

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