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Adelaide is sentimentally a favourite in the systems of live music. We may be avoided by the bigger headliner international bands of more recent times, or even yester-year. But essentially, we can entice the more popular outfits to genuinely not only play their fantastic brand of music towards our always appreciative crowds, but to also enjoy our fantastic sense of homeliness that the bigger “towns” like Adelaide can supply.

Tonight seemed to be one of the stronger chapters in our bible. Melbourne’s Oh Mercy opened up the enormous Thebarton Theatre for tonight, and in all honesty with a slight hastiness in their approach. By no means is this a disrespectful value, playing in front of a strong 2,000 crowd is startling for any band regardless, but the conduct of this four-piece is essentially a pure strength in their live show. Although somewhat threatened in essence, the quartet can certainly compose themselves and prove that the Finn Brothers may have inspired not only the next generation of music, but may have paved a stronger pathway for Oh Mercy to nearly threaten their stature, but not quite. Do not be surprised if you hear Lay Everything On Me on the radio and then in your head repetitively over the coming months.

London’s The Joy Formidable had the enormous task of main support tonight, to which also seemed maybe a little threatening, but also understandably. This was certainly a sink or swim situation which, to no help from the participating audience’s effect, helped out the far from home three piece. But the trio did in fact swim, although they had to tread the judgemental Adelaide waters first. Every ingredient of this band is fantastic; with multi-talented female vocalist/guitarist Ritzy Bryan, she certainly has the charm to sweep even the major anti-feminist individuals into her somewhat miniscule yet colossal charisma. The only problem being however, is that the chemistry between the members of the three-piece seems to some extent suffer. Held very strongly together by the amazingly talented drummer in Matt Thomas, it was literally a matter of time, well five songs in fact, until The Joy Formidable unleashed what they had hidden from Adelaide properly. In a frenzy, the last, but yet instrumentally inspired (and vocally perfected) track floored the crowd into jaw dropping oblivion, the unfortunate situation being it was their last track. However, with a solid promise to return to our shores in the nearby future armed with a new album, this is by far the last we hear from possibly London’s new sensation, if they find their stage confidence properly internationally and Kasabian forget how big their shoes actually are.

There are a few things to remember before seeing a band at Thebarton Theatre. Firstly, there are very few outfits that can come even close to selling the venue out. Secondly, most of these bands have a vast array of singles or hits which can generally create lives of their own. Then thirdly, these are mostly artists from overseas. Enter The Temper Trap from the humble streets of Melbourne, who have now effectively taken over the better part of the western world.

The quartet, or touring quintet have only an EP and (astonishing) album Conditions to hold to their name, but this proved to be more astounding than necessary as Thebarton Theatre even had difficulty containing everyone’s excitement. Performing similarly to a junior or younger version of U2, The Temper Trap have become an almost unstoppable force in Australian, and possibly global, alternative music. Every track, justifiably from their debut album, seemed to create waves of sonic adorability, which live, almost created the ideal that the record is an inadequate representation of how remarkable this quartet (or quintet) actually is. Fader, Love Lost, and Resurrection were pure forms of genius, while the Radiohead/Jeff Buckley-esque Soldier On left even this writer in silent awe. Closing with the extraordinary instrumental track Drum Song, it seemed to be the perfect climactic and short closure that Adelaide needed for this evening. Unnecessarily the band came out to perform an encore of three more tracks, most likely through their own appreciation of how astonishing the show actually was, but it felt almost as a dismay to the aforementioned finality of their original set list. Conclusively, Australia finally has an answer to U2, so what comes next? Hopefully this band stays Australian.

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