Tame Impala, The John SteelSingers, Felicity Groom @ theTivoli, Brisbane (16/10/2010)

Tue 19th Oct, 2010 in Gig Reviews

First to hit the stage, and playing to the usual small crowd at the beginning of the night, songstress Felicity Groom charmed the crowd with her folk – indie rock, her down to earth charm and slightly cynical nature. Showcasing a bunch of tunes such as 39 Ways To Leave A Lover (an oddly uplifting number filled with plots of revenge and some angry tambourine playing), the set started off strongly, but unfortunately lost its way part way through, becoming repetitive and slightly boring. Thankfully the set picked up and Groom finished the night on a high with her eerie yet uplifting vocals and melodies. Perhaps not quite to everyone’s taste but to those who like their folk indie a little off beat and chilled, be sure to check her out.

Brisbane natives and favourites of the local scene, The John Steel Singers hit the stage with the contagious enthusiasm from the first note. For those reading this who have never seen the band live, do not let the name influence you. These musicians are nothing like the sit down, middle aged, wannabe rock star mental image their name occasionally provokes. The talented line up put on an energetic and addictive set that leaves little wonder why they are one of the brightest and most talked about bands to emerge from Brisbane over the past few years, heck, they even manage to make the trombone a little bit sexy.

With nine musicians on the small Tivoli stage during part of the set, it would have been hard not to make the stage seem ridiculously overcrowded. Nevertheless, even with all nine, two drum kits and multiple other instruments, the band took it in their stride and continued to jump around on stage and genuinely look like they were having the time of their lives. It’s hard to describe exactly what it is about The John Steel Singers that is so likable, but walking out of the show tonight, I couldn’t help but keep going back to their set as the stand out performance of the night.

After some amusing and slightly disturbing entertainment by some pole dancing punters who looked as if they would be more at home at seedier establishments than the Tivoli, Tame Impala hit the stage to rather boisterous cheers and applause, kicking off their set in a typically chilled, melodic and oh so cool manner.

With possibly the greatest lighting and back screen visual display ever, featuring the noise lines commonly found on Windows Media Player, it seemed the Tivoli had been transported back in time to when rock was the most important thing in life.

With a set heavy with informal jams, medleys and reprises, stand out songs of the night included Desire Be, Desire Go and Solitude Is Bliss off 2010’s Innerspeaker, Half Full Glass of Wine off their 2008 self titled EP, and a cover of Blu Boy’s Remember Me. Unfortunately, the jams did get a bit monotonous after a while but the set always picked up when the boys launched back into their songs.

Described by punters after the show as one of the most “epic” and “memorable” sets they had seen played by Tame Impala, Saturday night’s show might go down in the memory of the crowd as the best nights of their life, musically.

As for this reviewer, to be honest the screen displays are what I remember from their set not their music, the soundtrack to my memory of Saturday night featuring The John Steel Singers and little else.