Tin Can Radio, ReadableGraffiti @ Transit Bar,Canberra (16/4/11)

Tue 19th Apr, 2011 in Gig Reviews

The cold night was warmed with pure awesomeness on Saturday as Pyramid at Transit brought together two unsigned acts; synth-poppin’, multi-instrumentalist indie rockers Tin Can Radio from the Gold Coast and Canberra’s own Readable Graffiti.

Opening the night with their lo-fi dance tracks were Readable Graffiti. Straight out of the gates the boys got right into their set busting out an unusually ten minute rendition of their Triple J Unearthed featured track Curse the Night. As vocalist Buttons Machiavelli started throwing shapes in the air, really feeling the music – the audience reaction was hard to gauge. It was somewhere between, welcoming and pure “What the f*#k am I listening to?” Needless to say, not everyone was feeling their set. But by the end they had hit some epic chords with a lot of us and despite the act missing most people, they held the hearts of a select few close to the stage.

After a short break to grab drinks and catch up on the footy scores, Tin Can Radio hit the ground running, blowing out our eardrums with smooth bass licks, synthesisers, guitars, crisp vocals and a whole lot of love. The music itself is hard to describe. Lead singer, Tom Wearne, put it best when describing one of their songs, “It starts off all nice, but you’ve got no idea what you’re in for.”
 If you can imagine putting Doves, Bloc Party and Silversun Pickups in a blender and making a smoothie, you’d get something a lot like Tin Can Radio. Then again, they can also do an amazing dubstep impression with live instruments, so like I said, hard to describe. The balance of the layers of synth, guitars, drums, vocals, trumpet and saxophone, as well as all the effects going on around them, is just astounding; and the result is a musical journey that takes you places that words can’t describe.

Tin Can Radio really are, as Machiavelli described, “The greatest band you’ll see who aren’t famous yet.”

To keep everyone around and grooving after the gig, Strangeways played some great 90s tracks to finish out the night.