British India @ Amplifier,Perth (13/05/10)

Sun 16th May, 2010 in Gig Reviews

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Touring for their third album Avalanche, Perth has been lucky to get a good taste of Melbourne boys British India. Their high energy and pop rock sound had the intimate Amplifier Bar going off

Warming up the set is Perth’s quintet The Emperors. Try-hard? Pretentious? Not at all, these guys look like they came right out of the garage and decided to give the stage a bit of a smash. Picture this: a flanno, guitarist rockin’ out in navy socks and the sole female sporting a Paddy’s T-Shirt. Certainly not dressed to impress and with a set list to match. With 3 guitarists and a guitar loop pedal, expect an ear buzzing noise the next day.

Looking past the sugar pop riffs and four chord wonders, Favourite Colours shows potential, variation and some nice harmonies. Front man Adam Livingston warned us that it would be hard to play with only 5 strings, and at the end of the set ripped the rest of the strings out and pouted.

The Emperors efforts certainly impressed one punter, dancing in the huge empty space between the band and the rest of the audience. Growing restless from the strain having only one warm up act, punters waited whilst listening to some trance, dream pop over the PA.

The room filled with some sort of archive radio show; some blank faces craned to see what this was all about until punters realised it signalled the beginning of the set. British India stepped on to the stage welcomed by a group of young girls pumping with oestrogen pushing their way to the front. Kicking off the set with 90 Ways To Leave Your Lover from the new Avalanche record – received loud and clear transmitting into feet stamping and head bobbling. They’re the kind of band you listened to in high school, and you think back to those times, reminisce

Pulling his signature hoodie over his face, front man Declan Melia shouts into the microphone with fierce energy. Melia really puts a piece of himself into his music; a lyrical genius and a stage presence to make you weak at the knees regardless of gender. With Nic Wilson on guitar, Will Drummond on bass and Matt O’Gorman on drums, the foursome work effortlessly bouncing off each other and from punters.

God is Dead, Meet the Kids from the sophomore Thieves album had punters in a frenzy. Leaning more toward the heavy head banging sound than pop rock from Avalanche, Safari is born – a greatly enthused reaction from punters.

Melia said he was glad to see some people sing along to the new songs and thanked them for buying the new album. There were some failed attempts at a Thursday night crowd surf and some male archetypes pushing and grunting.

A cover of Lithium, lit up faces as much as a jaded Nirvana song does. Leaving on their last note This Ain’t No Fuckin’ Disco and Black and White Radio. Punters moved in epileptic fits; stomping harder and jumping higher – it was simply euphoric.

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