The New Pornographers, LittleScout @ Manning Bar, Sydney(10/11/10)

Mon 15th Nov, 2010 in Gig Reviews

The New Pornographers are the closest thing indie music has to a bonafide supergroup. They command a highly vocal following both critically and on street level, and to see their show is to be assaulted for two hours by jangly pop perfection. Its lineup is a collaboration of towering Canadian musicians: the inimitable A C Newman, Destroyer’s drone-folk maestro Dan Bejar, alt-country siren Neko Case, guitarist Todd Fancey, filmmaker Blaine Thurier and drummer Kurt Dahle of Age of Electric fame – just to name a few. They’ve been recording since 2000’s Mass Romantic and their latest, Together, has taken them on the road with Brisbane’s Little Scout.

If The New Pornographers are the full bodied, boisterous advocates of high noon, then Little Scout are the dreamy, half awake musings of daybreak. Melissa Tickle’s whispering trill teased out a gracefully expanding sound from her band that never reached a crescendo per se, rather it glided out over the crowd, never letting itself build any tension. Their single Paper Aeroplanes sounded great, and although the chords and structure aren’t entirely new territory for Australian indie pop it was packaged and presented in such a charming way. They’ve toured with heaps of Aussie acts, but I think as a one two punch with the New Pornos it was particularly effective in a light and shade kinda way. It was a confident and beautiful start to the show and I’ll certainly be keeping a closer eye on this band.

2005’s Twin Cinema was a massive hit for New Pornographers, garnering lofty praise from the mighty Pitchfork pundits. They opened the show with a typically kinetic song from that record, Sing Me Spanish Techno, which kicks around with a noise other bands would feel comfortable playing as their closing number. Right off the bat the group threw down a gauntlet – fuck the encore, let’s just play the whole set like this! Big punchy chords, hooks that just stopped short of titanic and some colourful time signatures that kept you on your toes the whole time. Nothing too cerebral or agitated, just interesting, like with Up In The Dark. It stomped around a bit before taking off at a gallop, Case and Newman demanding “What’s Love? What’s Love?”

Their latest LP Together was well represented ( We End Up Together, Moves and Crash Years being standouts), but an extensive catalogue demanded attention, although I could have heard more from Electric Vision. They traded banter with us and between themselves, and this is a unique aspect of their sound: they feel like a true collaboration rather than a focused sound from a singular vision. Each member brought something to the table and the familiarity and warmth they exuded as a group of equals was different to the sound of a band performing behind a single lead.

The Manning Bar was so full of sound it had my ears buzzing for a day after. Not in the same way a metal gig would have, but buzzing as a result of a full rich noise bursting at the seams. Quite often supergroups tend to buckle under the weight of the egos that inhabit them, delivering music not equal to the sum of its parts. In this case though something went very, very right and it was a privilege to see a band of this pedigree in such fine form ten years on without a hint of slowing down. Here’s to the next ten.

Check out the photos from the gig