Gypsy & The Cat @ The GovernorHindmarsh, Adelaide (06/05/11)

Mon 9th May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

It would probably be an understatement to say that the past 6 months have been pretty good for Gypsy & The Cat. With the release of their debut album, 3 songs in the Triple J Hottest 100, major airplay and overseas success, Xavier Bacash & Lionel Towers are literally living the dream. Amongst all of this however, it is only now that they are getting around to playing their first major headlining shows in Australia. And clearly the demand for them is high, with the majority of their dates already sold out, including tonight’s show at The Governor Hindmarsh in Adelaide.

As the punters began pouring in early, I was quick to notice just how diverse a crowd these boys were pulling. There were your alternative-indie-hipster types who “like totally knew about Gypsy & The Cat before you”, the trendy, fashionable more “mainstream” crowd, and then a fair amount of older people- like some sort of eclectic smorgasbord. It was great to watch them all tediously move around and in between each other, unsure of why each other were really there. Now I say this because there was a lot of time to just sit and watch people, with doors opening at 7:30 and the support act not up until 9:15.

However, with all this waiting time, it meant that when support act WIM took to the stage The Gov was at full capacity so they had a solid crowd to play to. Whether they won over the crowd or not is still undecided. Using a mix of surf-rock, lo-fi and psychedelic sounds, it was enough to get a few people swaying and bopping their heads but not enough to be more than background music to a lot of the crowd who decided their own conversations were far more interesting. While it may be debatable as to whether their sound really fit with that of Gypsy & The Cat’s, they nonetheless produced some great sounding tracks with their cover of Paul Simon’s Graceland their only real downfall in the set, with the singer’s vocals just falling flat when it needed that little bit of punch.

Entering the stage sans their trademark white suits and sunglasses, Gypsy & The Cat were greeted enthusiastically by the increasingly impatient crowd. The moment had finally come and there was a lot of excitement in the air. That was until they opened their set with a new untitled track. I don’t know about anyone else but even regardless of how much I love a band, I really struggle to dance and get into a song if I’m hearing it for the first time, I like to familiarise myself with it first. The unfamiliarity of the opener seemed to throw a lot of the crowd off too, and I could feel the initial excitement waver slightly. Luckily they followed up by immediately launching into my personal favourite Piper’s Song but that was about where it started and ended for me.

For a band that has such a dynamic sound akin to Empire Of the Sun and early MGMT they really struggled to pull it off onstage. At times seeming less than enthused to be up there and barely engaging with the audience except for the clichéd clapping a long and sing-a-long there wasn’t much going on up on the stage. Even Bacash’s normally perfect vocals seemed slightly flat and even routine.

Playing all the tracks from their debut Gilgamesh, the boys also showcased another new untitled track, explaining that as this was their first show of the tour we were the first people to hear these songs apart from their manager, not even their record label had heard them hence them remaining untitled for now. The second of the new songs was far more upbeat and catchier than their opening song, leaving me to question why it wasn’t their opener as even the crowd received this one with more enthusiasm. Finishing with a two-song encore, the extremely popular Jona Vark had the crowd in a sing-a-long frenzy before with Running Romeo closed off the hour-long set.

Having seen these guys at Big Day Out earlier in the year, I was looking forward to seeing a more comprehensive stage show from them. They really impressed me at the music festival and their sound and stage presence were wonderfully tight. Unfortunately tonight these elements just constantly fell short and there was an unfinished feeling about the whole set. I really wanted them to blow me away, I truly did. I guess tonight just wasn’t meant to be.