Old New York, The Orange CitySings, Silent Motive @ TheZoo, Brisbane (14/07/2010)

Tue 20th Jul, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Old New York. Well known as the ruins of the big apple in the animation Futurama. It is also the name of a young Brisbane band. Old New York played their final show at The Zoo on Wednesday 14th July. The boys of Old New York pride themselves in having a hand in their music every stage of the way, from recording to mixing to management. The show reflected their DIY attitude with many of the audience being friends and family of the bands.

Silent Motive opened the curtain for the night. Despite being out of practice for a while, Silent Motive pulled off an impressive set, well written songs with variation from mellow tunes to some harder rock. However, it was a shame that Ben Speight ’s vocals couldn’t match the changes in style, sounding similar throughout. Crowd interaction was always going to be hard with seven people at the beginning of the night, but Silent Motive get kudos for trying. A solid performance by Silent Motive, which could have benefited from more showmanship and less awkward looks.

The Orange City Sings followed as the crowd began to stream into The Zoo. The band brought an energy to the stage with hard hitting indie rock songs, with singer / guitarist *Zac Gould and drummer Ben Dubber really rocking out. This was contrasted by Jonathan Jeffrey who seemed to suffer bassist syndrome and looked disinterested for the most part. In the end it was an enjoyable set with a free EP handed out to sweeten the deal.

Old New York opened their final performance with their song Fry. This drew the fifty odd people loitering around the bar to the front of the stage. To say that they played musical instruments is usually an obvious statement, however, with Old New York it’s a pun. Jacob Lancaster, Paul Barnes, Daniel McIntyre and Ben Lancaster were constantly swapping guitars, basses, keys and drums. The sharing didn’t stop there with all the guys taking turns at singing too.

The crowd couldn’t get enough of Old New York. Songs To Be Loud…, Hope Me and Austere got the crowd of seventy dancing on the floor of The Zoo. With such an enthusiastic crowd it was surprising that Old New York didn’t attempt much crowd interaction, instead giving four shout outs to The Zoo.