Muscles, The Touch, BeirutBathouse @ the UniBar,Adelaide (19/11/10)

Tue 23rd Nov, 2010 in Gig Reviews

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.

Adelaide UniBar this year has hosted some relatively large acts, like Delphic, Two Door Cinema Club and Miami Horror. Last Friday it was *Muscles*’ turn, the Melbourne based electronica artist, whose song Ice Cream was one of the summer anthems of 2007. The album it was from, Guns Babes Lemonade, was highly received by the music press and peaked at #14 on the ARIA charts. After going on an extended hiatus, he was back on tour to promote his new Younger & Immature EP. He was supported by local acts, Beirut Bathhouse and The Touch.

Beirut Bathhouse had a dance-punk vibe, which was interesting seeing as I hadn’t really heard any dance-punk in about three years…Either way they tried their best to hype up the crowd. Unfortunately for them, they had minimal success. By the time The Touch began their set, the crowd had grown considerably and some actually danced (gasp). As always, The Touch played a tight and energetic set and their self proclaimed ‘danceable noise’ managed to get the crowd more excited.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was in reality probably only 45 minutes, Muscles began. By this point the crowd had grown and trying to move became a hard task. He burst onto the stage to rapturous applause and the crowd almost literally exploded (okay, slight exaggeration, but still). His energy was infectious and by the second song, tops were off, crowd surfing had begun, cups of beer thrown and their resultant ‘showers’ frequent. He played all of his new Younger & Immature EP, with the single Girl Crazy Go getting the most positive response. But it was still Ice Cream, even three years on, that really set the crowd off (and perhaps, I suspect, why many of them were there). So much so, that he finished his set with a mini encore version of it.

His sound hasn’t really changed much since Guns Babes Lemonade, with his music still best suited to partying. His evolution as a singer has been similar too, with it being closer to speaking/yelling rather than actually singing. Moments of his live set had a slightly acid house vibe live, reminiscent of the Madchester scene of the late 80s/early 90s. Maybe I’d just had too many beers and the strobes were getting to my head or I was just hearing what I wanted to, who can say. Whether it will be a case of the dreaded ‘second album syndrome’ or he will be catapulted back into music stardom and become a summer music festival crowd puller is hard to tell. I’m guessing that without a single quite as catchy as Ice Cream on the album, he may find it hard to reach his former highs again. Regardless, the man still knows how to put on a good live show.

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.