Best Coast, Super Wild Horses@ Oxford Art Factory, Sydney(7/3/11)

Mon 14th Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Super Wild Horses have a fun, jangly pop sound that incorporates very little but creates something greater than the sum of its parts. The Geelong girls each spend half of the set playing guitar or drums, swapping over at the midway point. It should come across as gimmicky, as if to represent how brilliantly talented they are. Really, though, it’s just to keep things fresh – something a band with such a basic setup probably needs – and it worked very much in their favour. With their well-blended vocals and rattling clean guitar, this felt more like a loose garage jam session than a gig – and that’s definitely a compliment; as it eased the audience into proceedings considerably well.

By the times the curtains are drawn and the band of the hour Best Coast shuffle onto the Oxford Art Factory stage, the room is well and truly packed. One of 2010’s bigger buzz bands, their Golden Plains sideshow has been sold out for months in advance, and the trio themselves were quick to show their appreciation as they kicked straight into the title track from their debut record, Crazy For You.

The sound was clear, the band was tight and they had in front of them a crowd who’d been waiting to see them live since last year. So what, then, was missing? Hard to say. Their blissful, spring-in-the-step kind of pop music was very easy to get lost in; yet, oddly enough, that didn’t really click in the first quarter or so of the set. There was minimal audience response during the songs, and the band itself remained confined to their respective corners of the stage. The excitement of seeing the band in the flesh had worn off.

Perhaps the jetlag was finally settling in, or maybe the band was feeling sluggish after playing in Melbourne the night before. Whatever it was, it thankfully sorted itself out around the time the band played Sun Was High (So Was I) lifted from a seven-inch released prior to Crazy for You. Bandleader Bethany Cosentino grew more talkative and friendly towards her audience, while guitarist Bobb Bruno even cracked a few jokes within the band and actually started smiling. As for drummer Ali Koehler? Well, she smirked about once – and that was all we were going to get from her. Ahh well, at least she didn’t miss a beat.

Favourites from the album and earlier material dedicated to “the real Best Coast fans” followed, soundly performed and occasionally getting a strong reception – Crazy for You’s lead single Boyfriend, in particular, springs to mind. A lot of the time, however, Cosentino was basically trying to coax her audience into caring. “Are you guys ready?” she questioned before When I’m With You kicked into its up-tempo second verse. A cheer came in response, before she half-jokingly said “let’s see it!” in the coldest tone imaginable. It may well have been Bethany’s style of humour, but in the context of the moment it sounded like pure frustration. Weird, coming from one of the more laid-back figureheads of modern indie rock, but there you are.

The Best Coast performance was a difficult one to critique overall. From one perspective, it was great to finally see some of the songs the audience had grown to love over the summer just past in the live environment. Then again, how different did it really sound from the grungy lo-fi production of the songs themselves? This was a cute performance, no questions asked. Fun? Sure. But was this ultimately worth the wait? Heartbreakingly, not quite.