Cut Copy @ HQ, Adelaide(20/05/11)

Sun 22nd May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

It’s been a while since Cut Copy ’s debut long-player Bright Like Neon Love hit our soundwaves way back in 2004. Now another album later and as veterans of countless shows and almost as many awful scissor and paste puns, Cut Copy made a return to Adelaide to tour their third LP release Zonoscope. Much-lauded album number two In Ghost Colours required an evolution in sound and advanced maturity; yet maintained the electro-pop darlings’ spark and stirring up dance floors here and overseas. Since its recent release Zonoscope has garnered popularity, with Cut Copy giving it a showing at several gigs including Laneway Festival earlier this year and offering this gig something to live up to.

World’s End Press brought the caravan of travelling beats to pre-warm the HQ Complex stage for Cut Copy, fittingly playing the night before the supposed judgment day and end of the world. A dedicated few danced it out on the floor while the rest of the early inhabitants backed themselves into the expanse of HQ, checking out the bar or sequestered on the couches. At turns hypnotic, cosmic-disco and crazed, World’s End Press expended enough energy to run a small power station in a quest to steal the recalcitrant crowd. Singer Tom Parkinson’s antics certainly played a part in the on-stage fun-machine rollercoaster ride the band engaged in.

Throughout the set the green-energy levels continued to increase as bass player and skilled drumpad basher Sashi Dharann pulled out a plethora of entertaining foot-finessing dance moves. The occupants of the dance floor responded, their enthusiasm betrayed by the leisurely seated and wall-hugging audience section. The energy-meter on stage possibly exceeded authorised levels when Tom Parkinson bounded down onto the dance floor for a little dance amongst the early punters. World’s End Press’s set saw beats dropped like flies as the band whipped through Long Live All of the Nights to Come, Faithful, the suave electro pop of Only the Brave and Triple J favourite Golden Child.

There are many who would say the definition of ‘danceable electro pop’ actually reads Cut Copy. The dance floor section of HQ on the Friday night certainly agreed, without even the need to consult a dictionary. Opener Nobody Lost Nobody Found dragged many punters from the bar and shadowed expanses of HQ down to populate the floor. However it was crowd favourite Lights and Music that saw the large room throbbing and the dance floor jumping as if the crowd before the stage were under some possessed fervour. Or at a rave. Their cult leader in the form of singer Dan Whitford welcomed his fold with open palms and a charismatic stage presence.

The acoustics of HQ were shown at their best when Cut Copy displayed their layered electro pop babies. That is, with a set list showcasing such tunes as old faithfuls Hearts On Fire and So Haunted. The set sadly limited the appearances from six-year-old Bright Like Neon Love; with Saturdays serving to somewhat sate the debut album blues. Of course the night also featured the recent radio darlings Take Me Over and Where I’m Going, tunes markedly different yet still danceable pop melodies. The almost tribal percussive sounds of Sun God, from new lovechild Zonoscope, saw the band segueing into five minutes of layered syncopation and hypnotic beats and echoes. After this trance-like closer, Cut Copy strolled off-stage, only to return minutes later with an expected encore. No wool had been pulled over anyone’s eyes. After the rave-like onslaught that had gone before, Need You Now and Out There On The Ice served to polish off the last night of Cut Copy’s Australian tour with aplomb.