The Cat Empire @ Jive,Adelaide (29/04/11)

Sun 1st May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Whilst most people in Adelaide were sneaking Kahlua into their tea filled china cups toasting the royal couple, a select few jammed into Jive to witness the 2nd gig on The Cat Empire ’s 10th Anniversary tour crawl.

By the time Melbourne hipsters Eagle and the Worm took to the stage Jive was heaving at the seams. Playing pop friendly indie tunes this six piece are fun and eager. Having caught them at Fringe earlier this year their performance at Jive was more polished but still relaxed. Front man Jared Brown casually chatted with the crowd as the band cruised through their upbeat set. Finishing off with radio favourite All I Know the crowd erupted; I’d imagine they have secured some new fans after tonight.

As the temperature rose The Cat Empire bounded onto the tiny Jive stage and pretty much tore the roof off from the beginning. Launching straight into How To Explain the lads were relaxed and back to their usual tricks. Celebrating 10 years together, this tour consists of a “Venue Crawl” where the band will play at some of the smaller venues that hosted them in the early stages of their career as well as the more familiar larger venues. Tonight’s gig saw the boys performing at an intimate venue whose size they haven’t played since 2003, the appreciative mob relished catching them in such a cozy setting, loving everything the lads threw at them.

The set list tonight was a mix of old and new with a lot of the more unusual tunes being the big hitters. Harry James Angus once again came up trumps, stealing the show with his charismatic stage presence and trumpeting; his scat attacks whipped the crowd into a frenzy on many occasions. Ollie McGill gave Angus a good run for his money with his fabulous fingers dancing across the keys. Loosely structured, each member got a chance to have their moment, from spontaneous scatting to dueling brass, it was as if we had gate crashed a band jam session.

Funk and fun were the ingredients for the night with these boys clearly making the statement that the Empire is striking back. Not a lot has changed but why fix what ain’t broke. The boys didn’t neglect “The Wedding” with Angus stating, “all music created tonight is dedicated to ‘Prince Charles’ and his new wife”. Adelaide references were scattered throughout the set, front man Felix Riebl commenting that Sly was written at the Garden of Unearthly Delights many moons ago and Jive being a “tinny arsed theatre with sentimental value”

So Many Nights and Two Shoes had the punters feet shuffling, Riebl’s enjoyment bubbled over at one point resulting in a lost mic for a few minutes.
After multiple crowd shout outs, the requests were finally acknowledged as The Cat Empire rounded out the set with The Chariot. Returning for a brief encore all 7 members crammed onto the tiny Jive stage to perform Hello “for the sake of the reunion”. The rapturous applause that exploded from the throng would indicate a good choice.

Tonight’s performance proved that they still have the infectious bum shaking rhythms that made them a success and not much has changed since I first saw them play at the Adelaide Fringe some 8 years ago. After ten years together these boys still bring the funk.