The Panics, Split Seconds @Unibar, Adelaide (02/07/11)

Thu 7th Jul, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Four years have passed since the Panics raised a significant brood of followers with Cruel Guards , their beguiling third album. A sizeable success across the summer of 2007-08, it opened many a door for the group, while also standing at the vanguard – in a distinctively Australian way – of a global push towards the wide open and even pastoral sounds now championed by Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes . Much as they did around Cruel Guards , the Perth-raised quartet of Jae Laffer, Drew and Myles Wootton, Paul Otway and Jules Douglas are applying the shrewd pattern of a slowly building crescendo to their support for its successor, Rain On The Humming Wire .

Preluding the album with the lead-off single Majesty has afforded the band a chance to stretch out with a short tour, and they began the five-date lap of the mainland at Adelaide Unibar. In attendance was a crowd that did not quite fill the room, but the gaps allowed a relaxed atmosphere in which those in the front, middle and rear of the room all felt comfortable with their posts. They were warmed up by another West Australian ensemble, Split Seconds , who offered the occasional moment of inspiration interspersed with plenty of naivety that will play well or badly depending on the crowd in front of them.

Precursors out of the way, the Panics launched into a set that featured five tracks from their new disc, revealing a marked change from the sing along melodicism of Cruel Guards. If anything the new songs were more moody and less tune-dependent than the rest the quintet have produced, and added a harder edged counterpoint to the familiar warmth of rolling tunes like Live Without , Ruins and Creaks . As on the previous tour, there remained a curious absence of the band’s first batch of material, their earlier output represented only by the title track from the second album Sleeps Like A Curse and Laffer’s quietly wistful In Your Head , from the Crack In The Wall EP.

Melodic differences aside, the band’s complementary interplay, which artfully harmonises vocals, guitar motifs and rhythms at various times, remains well and truly intact. The mix seemed a little hazy at the beginning, but quickly found its equilibrium in a low-ceilinged room that rewards skilful exponents of their craft. The main set was rounded off with the one-two punch of Don’t Fight It and Majesty itself, a duo that neatly encapsulated the differences that now seem apparent between Cruel Guards and Humming Wire .

An appreciative ovation had the band briskly back on stage to conclude the show with Get Us Home , before departing the stage in search of some Saturday night shenanigans. The bearded guitarist Drew Wootton soon emerged from the men’s room to ask where in Adelaide the band might go on from the venue to enjoy Saturday night, in lieu of a friendly 3pm flight time the next day. Having had plenty of time to themselves in the interim between albums, the Panics seem in a sprightly mood.

Setlist:

One Way Street
Creatures
Live Without
Ruins
Sleeps Like A Curse
Creaks
Low On Your Supply
Wide Open
In Your Head
Cruel Guards
Endless Road
Don’t Fight It
Majesty
Get Us Home