Miami Horror @ Beach Rd,Sydney (11/11/10)

Mon 15th Nov, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Having visited their namesake (Miami) and blasted through the rest of America earlier this year, Melbourne quartet Miami Horror returned to Sydney to reap the benefits of their radio-slaying Illumination. Given that Beach Road Hotel in Bondi typically hosts top notch bands (case in point: Hungry Kids of Hungary and friends the night before) for nix, the fact that Ben Plant and his merry men were able to sell the place out should already give a good indication of their incredible popularity.

These guys are smart operators. They’ve been progressively releasing songs for over a year now, starting with Sometimes, which has become something of a house classic, and continuing through with Moon Theory, not to mention Don’t Be On With Her. This gives the largely under-30 audience plenty of time to absorb and recognise each of these songs in turn, a move taken over by Triple J when they made Illumination Album Of the Week in winter and pimped out the remaining tracks. All this means that by the time Josh Heppinstall takes to the stage in his white suit, he can be confident that he’s not going to be singing any of his songs alone.

Having brought their own lighting and sound rigs, the boys power through their set with a professional edge that really only comes from having been on tour for almost twelve months. The bass is sorely lacking in the first half, but by the time Heppinstall does his best impression of Kimbra for I Look To You, everything’s in order. Flanked by percussion enthusiast Dan Whitechurch, Hepinstall is a dream frontman, channeling his inner Prince with blistering guitar solos and unstoppable body moves, and that helps him carry off being Kimbra and Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo (the voice behind Holidays ) without most people noticing.

Then again, there’s a lot to look at tonight, including Ke$ha, who randomly pops into the pub to check out the band, provoking a ripple reaction that is utterly hilarious. By the time the band hits Holidays, which leads into a Cassian remix that marries the hook with a riff similar to Modjo’s Lady, there’s no denying that these guys have got their shit down. There’s not a dry shirt in the house (incidentally, there also isn’t any air-conditioning) and fans stumble out into the warm night eager to tell their friends what they missed out on.