Preceded by two cheeky burlesque maidens, a magician hammering nails up his nose and a nearly naked Cirque de Soleil acrobat (an almost orgasmic experience, judging by the look on a few female’s faces) Melodics had some tough gigs to follow. But the easy going stage presence of both their frontmen and the set Melodics offered relived the pressure to out perform rather than just deliver their usual enjoyable, energetic and entertaining act.
Having seen Melodics’ perform several times in the past few years, a promising progression in confidence and performance is noticeable, which sounds clinical, but really is essential to a act’s longevity. The band members have clearly relaxed on stage and are comfortable with presenting their individual talents through extensive, yet energetic solos. Through the band’s use of fusing retro sounds such as hip-hop, synth heavy 80’s pop and funk, Melodics have cleverly assembled a set that need not be obviously – œtight’ to be entertaining.
At the first Friday night opening of Red Bennie’s on Chapel St, Melodics performed a seemingly free flowing set of their tunes (such as Cash, Sex and UFO-Take Me Away ) interspersed with instrumental and vocal solos, continually sliding from track to track, genre to genre in a set that was not tiring or unrelenting, as sets without breaks can be, but was quite the opposite.
These guys can play anyone’s songs and by pulling out interludes of INXS’ Never Tear Us Apart and that really cheesy 80’s sax solo everyone knows but don’t know who wrote it, maintained the crowd’s attention and amusement during a gig they weren’t necessarily there to see.
Considering that the crowd was largely there to take a squiz at the ambitious new venue rather than a crowd dedicated to their performance, Melodics would have added some new passengers to their wagon.
