This was a Birds of Tokyo performance with many marked differences, mainly the fact that everyone, including the band themselves, would be seated for the whole performance.

Gone were the at times, boisterous fans, to be replaced by a subdued, quietly buzzing demographic ranging from fans to the curious set in the indulgent surroundings of the Melbourne Town Hall.

Glenn Richards set a beautiful scene for the last leg of the Broken Strings tour – armed with only an acoustic guitar, his emotive vocals soared and filled the room. There’s something very humble and vulnerable about Richard’s presence – closing number One Crowded Hour from the Augie March catalogue, in its stripped back form proved to be one of the highlights of the night.

Birds of Tokyo were filming the event for a live DVD to be released in the near future – half the fun in the evening came from the right side of the room watching punters warily eyeing the hovering camera arm as it swooped over their heads.

The curtain drew back to reveal a string quartet who opened with an instrumental medley of Birds of Tokyo numbers, including Broken Bones, Universes and Rest Here My Brother.

Rapturous applause welcomed the band on stage, who somberly took to their seats, breaking into Armour for Liars, followed by Like Rain. The string quartet added an extra level of intensity to the performance, highlighting the emotional depth of each track.

A benefit to the stripped back arrangements is that the audience are granted the chance to appreciate the vocal ability of Ian Kenny, undoubtedly one of the finest voices in the scene. Russian Roulette and Believer brought a lighter air to the evening, as Kenny and guitarist Adam Sparks broke into huge grins, cheerfully swaying along.

Wide Eyed Boy kept the upbeat mood going, continuing the cheerful, relaxed feel of proceedings before The Baker’s Son jerked listeners back into the transcendent atmosphere created from the fusion of the string quartet, the naked beauty of Kenny’s vocals and the – œoriginal’ styling of the track.

Composer Anthony Cormican has kept to a very simple, yet stable formula for his re-workings of each track: apart from the epics (_Train Wrecks_ and The Baker’s Son), Cormican has applied the right balance of restyling to maintain the original integrity of each track in conjunction with a subtle, workable strings-backed flavour.

Following the interval, the band returns to the stage with Kenny and Spark returning to their friendly banter which punctuated the first half of the set. This time however, it was all about Marvin Gaye in the rarely performed cover of Heard it Through the Grapevine.

_Head in My Hands- complete with ukulele-armed Spark brought an exotic feel to the evening as punters divided their attention between a restrained Kenny (who was resisting the urge to jump up and dance) and the exceptionally talented multi-instrumentalist Glenn Saragapany, who spent the whole night tucked away behind the grand piano.

Train Wrecks was the other perfect example of a track that benefited from the scoring – the album version still has room for scope, and tonight, it was obvious that Cormican not only pounced on the possibilities offered, but created a spectrum of sound to create one of the most beautiful moments of the evening.

Violet following onwards was probably not the best manner of track positioning on the set list – the acoustic interpretation didn’t differ too significantly from the album version, and was definitely not a strong enough follow-up to the masterly rendition of Train Wrecks.

Rest Here My Brother was a different story – the presence of the string quartet represented one of the rare times where the live rendition is little different to that on the album – and was deservedly one of the – œchills down spine’ moments of the evening.

Two arrangements tonight completely stood out – the first one being _Off Kilter-, which was lead in by Sarangapany. The grand piano conveyed a sense of innocence that is lost in the album version, whereas the restructuring of time signatures added different textures and scope to a classically simple track.

Wayside is at best of times, a tearjerker. Replace the piano intro with a string section and a solitary spotlight on the slumped shoulders of Ian Kenny whilst ignoring the pride in his gaze and try not to cry – if that doesn’t tug at the heartstrings, the amplified, mournful strings will.

The set closed appropriately with Sarangapany leading the band back into Broken Bones, beginning with a piano solo. Amazingly, the room stayed silent as punters continued the acoustic journey with bated breath. Halfway through Broken Bones, Kenny’s voice cracks, almost as a signal for the band to lift their game for the closing stages of the show.

“You can’t think we’d leave just yet, would you?” Spark had laughed as the band reentered for the encore. “We haven’t done the Medicine song, or the – œThere Goes My Baby’ one.” Cue laughter all around.

A two track encore kicks off with Medicine, and it is the best it’s ever sounded. Typically a boring track on their sophomore effort Universes, the orchestral arrangement translates the less popular track into a work of art that requires ones full attention.
Closing track Silhouettic can be named nothing less than the show stopper. One of the most significantly reworked tracks, the final result from the Cormican treatment turns a crowd pleasing, almost pop number into an intricate, delicate piece leaving the audience stunned.

The Broken Strings tour was a phenomenal undertaking, and marked out Birds of Tokyo as a band not to be pigeonholed by their talent. The renditions performed tonight showcased a mature, talented group of musicians who are more then willing to spread their wings and embrace the multi-faceted nature of music – whilst intended as a one-off project, the gasps of awe from punters and the standing ovation suggests that the Birds are onto something major.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW HERE