Epicure @ The Annandale Hotel,Sydney (21/05/10)

Tue 25th May, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Epicure have regularly taken to the stage of your local live music venue for the past ten years. They have toured the country on the back of four records and a handful of hottest 100 success. A decade in and they have decided it’s time to call it a day, or more appropriately in this case, a night. The band’s farewell tour coincides with the release of the bands final record Quietly into the night – An Epicure Anthology .

Dave Anderson was first on stage for the night and from the moment he opended his mouth it was clear why he was chosen to support, his voice and music fit perfectly with that of Epicure’s. Vocally even to the point where I could have mistaken him for our headliners as he covered their track 12 Months of Winter towards the end of his set.

Sailmaker produced some really nice moments throuhout their time in front of us. The songs are melodic and catchy, again using a similar vibe to that of Epicure’s. The singer’s vocal was beautiful and i wished i could have heard more of it. Unfortunately due to the singer being quite low in the volume stakes, the crowd often started talking over top of the band throughout the set. I look forward to hearing them with a bit more volume in the future.

Epicure began their final ever Sydney set playing a song which I know is a lot of peoples favourite Epicure moment, Tightrope Walker. And although it took the band a couple of songs to really find their feet, by the time they got to Life Sentence a couple of songs later, the needle had definitely found it’s way into the groove. Fans of Epicure’s Main Street record were really catered for throughout the middle of the set with a gorgeous delivery of Lyla’s Kisses being followed up by Like You Just Don’t Care .

The Main Street love continued with an huge version of Amen , the band kicking into a gear I had yet to see them reach at any previous live shows, and everything fell into place. The rolling country guitar riffs seemed to melt over Juan’s vocals, and it would have been at this part of the set that it really started to sink in, this would be the last time.

triple j favourites since 2003 Self Destruct in Five and Armies Against Me received a good reception from the crowd as you would expect. Blow those blues away and Cobra Kisses showed what the band is capable of musically, they manage to create such a layered sound when firing on all four (or five in Epicure’s case). Some of it was pure magic and you could see the band starting to look like they wanted a bit more room to move onstage as the jams reached their peaks. The band thanked the audience and said a quick goodbye, before returning for a brief encore and waiving goodnight to Sydney for the last time.

The hardest thing about writing this review has been knowing as i write each of the song titles it will be the last time i see them performed live. As Epicure head quietly into the night they will be missed.

Check out the photos from the gig