The Horrors @ Amplifier, Perth(30/01/10)

Wed 3rd Feb, 2010 in Gig Reviews

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It was that time of year again. The night before the Big Day Out when everyone is in an excitable frenzy and wanting to party the night away before going to the Perth leg of the festival the next day. Sideshows in Perth are a rare commodity so when you get to see one of the only bands that appeals to you on the Big Day Out line-up, you grip that chance by both hands and hold on tight.

The punters at The Horrors were a blend of people who had been listening to them since their debut with Strange House; people who had seen them on The Mighty Boosh as The Black Tubes and were curious to see what they were about without the writing team of Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett dictating what was said and done; people who had only heard Triple J favourite Who Can Say and people who had only heard that the lead singer had dated a Geldof once upon a time and wanted to see what kind of boy would force her to marry some random after breaking her heart. To say that the mix of people was strange would be a dramatic understatement.

Support band, Fabulous Diamonds were a strange band to be hand-picked to open for a gloomy band such as The Horrors. They were shiny, electro and much better suited to that other show playing down the road with some of the big hitters from the BDO Boiler Room stage. The punters also thought it was a strange choice with more of them choosing to sit outside in the Amplifier beer garden than watch the local band.

With only one support, The Horrors graced the stage at roughly 10pm. Lead singer, Farris Rotter shimmied and shook his way through the first part of their set, which included just about every song off of their newest album Primary Colours. Guitarist, Joshua Von Grimm hid behind his hair for most of the set, bassist Spider Webb didn’t stop dancing even when swapping instruments for a few songs with the tall and skinny keyboardist Tomethy Furse who could very well be the coolest man in the world. He gave the impression that all the girls wanted to fuck him and all the boys wanted to be him, and it was probably true. Coffin Joe hid behind his gigantic drum kit and didn’t come out again till the band had finished.

It became strongly apparent when the band launched into Who Can Say mid-set that the entire front row was made up of girls who all had a major crush on Rotter, with screams and swooning to boot. Sadly, this was the only song that received such a reaction with the rest of the songs met with extreme confusion. Say for example, Sheena Was A Parasite which was played in the encore. Sounding like a noisy, obnoxious, punk rock song rather than a bitter-sweet break-up song, it was as if it were being played by a different band. But those who had loved them three years ago, when Strange House was released, met the song with massive cheers. There were some hopes that there may be a Suicide cover (which is what Melbourne got) but sadly, it was nowhere to be seen.

It was the first time The Horrors had been to Perth and unfortunately, a majority of the crowd was left bored and disgruntled. Mutterings about being at home listening to the albums would’ve been better filtered through as the sold-out crowd piled out of the venue. Perhaps they expected something more theatrical from the band. But perhaps not appealing to a mainstream crowd is exactly what the band intended. The true fans had a great time.

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