The New Pornographers, LittleScout @ Hi-Fi Bar andBallroom, Melbourne(13/11/2010)

Mon 22nd Nov, 2010 in Gig Reviews

In the wake of their 5th LP Together, The New Pornographers are doing a 7-date, 6-state promotional tour of Australia. Joining them at all shows are Brisbane’s sweetheart indie rockers Little Scout who, after two EP’s, are currently recording their debut album.

Looking every part the indie darlings they are bound to be, Little Scout took the stage complete with button-up shirts, vintage dresses and infectious little dance moves. Without any introduction, they launch into a set jam packed with fun and contagious numbers. With drummer Miro Mackie’s steady, marching band like beats providing a strong backbone for the reverb heavy guitars and dreamy vocal combination of Melissa and Kirsty Tickle.

Little Scout are a cute band and Little Scout make cute music. The type of music you’d play on a nice summer’s day while sitting in the sun light. Although this was their first time in Melbourne for the year, Little Scout seem to have quite an established local fan base, with the crowd reacting very favourably towards the young band. Playing some old material as well as a few new songs, Little Scout never took time to slow down. This worked to their advantage because at points of their set, it seemed as though the smokey, ethereal vocals of Melissa Tickle were lulling the crowd into a sort of hypnotic daze as they rose and fell with the beats of the drums. Then, before anyone actually realized, Little Scout were thanking us and set was over.

Taking the stage with a distinctly casual and familiar grace that only a band with thirteen years of experience can possess, The New Pornographers came out and wasted no time with introductions, instead launching into Sing Me Spanish Techno off their album Twin Cinema. From the opening chords the crowd were entranced by the talented group from Canada. With the absence of Dan Bejar on this tour, vocal duties were shared only by Neko Case and Carl Newman and throughout the set, they played a pretty even amount of songs as lead vocalist.

The New Pornographers have a very symmetrical stage setup and although it allows each member to shine, none of them really exhibited much in the way of showmanship. The exception was drummer Kurt Dahle who, whenever possible, added the occasional drum stick twirl or flourish between beats.

The band performed a lot of songs (22 to be exact), and performed them well. With five albums under their belts, it would be hard to play a set much shorter than that. Crowd favourites like Mass Romantic and Twin Cinema ensured that this was a performance not to be forgotten by the eclectic mix of patrons who were a healthy mix of, let’s call them ‘first generation’ fans, and those who have only found the band from their most recent offerings.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the set came during the first encore when the band came back out and announced that they would like to play Myriad Harbour but wouldn’t due to Dan Bejar’s absence. They then challenged anyone in the crowd that would like to come up on stage and sing lead vocals to do just that. After no one did, the band fittingly pushed through Challengers. Upon completion of the song and another invitation to the crowd, a lone man by the name of Andrew could be heard yelling, “I’ll do it!”, and the sea of patrons parted allowing him access to the stage. He got up and nervously asked the crowd to put footage of the event on YouTube before having a quick chat to Carl and Kathryn. Without much more delay, the band got into it. Despite all doubts about the guy, Andrew actually sung the song very well. With the crowd spurring him on after every line he sung, you could see the grin on his face spread more and more. I doubt that he will ever forget this moment. On the conclusion of the song the crowd erupted into a cheer greater than any other on the night and the band left once more, leaving Andrew to soak up his much deserved applause.

When he left the stage the band came out once more and played a stellar rendition of The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism which, after the previous song, was very much overlooked by the crowd. After a final wave and thank you, The New Pornographers left the stage a last time.

CHECK OUT PHOTOS FROM THE NIGHT HERE