British Sea Power, Fire! SantaRosa! Fire @ Oxford ArtsFactory, Sydney (28/07/11)

Wed 3rd Aug, 2011 in Gig Reviews

With Sydney’s live music lovers lured away by other Splendour side shows, not to mention the Splendour spectacle itself, a fairly small crowd turned up for the British Sea Power gig. Fire! Santa Rosa! Fire! made a deserving opening act, with interesting indie rock sounds, led by a talented female vocalist. There were strong guitar parts, electronic jangly bits and confident vocals. The crowd were receptive if fairly restrained.

And then British Sea Power turned up. They burst onto stage with the anthemic Who’s In Control? , the opening track of their latest album, Valhalla Dancehall. With driving drumbeat and electric guitar riffs that wouldn’t be out of place in an 80s stadium rock anthem, it was an arresting opening.

What the crowd lacked in size it made up ten times over with enthusiasm. The ease of access meant that lots of raucous man-dancing was possible, along with multiple trips to the bar. Girl-dancing was also possible, but, interestingly, about 90% of BSP’s fans seem to be men. Crowd pleaser Remember Me was also played early on, and from there, basically, the rock didn’t stop.

Highlights included the instrumental post-rock The Great Skua, It Ended on an Oily Stage and cover of Tugboat by American 80s band Galaxie 500, with bass player Hamilton taking on the lead vocals. The set list seems to have been almost identical to their Melbourne show

There wasn’t much banter between songs, just a whole lot of rocking out. Yan’s vocals were strong and consistent and Noble’s reverb-heavy guitar solos were impressive. Abi had the posture of a ballerina and her violin playing was hypnotic. By the time Carrion came on in the encore, the hardcore fans up the front were getting to know each other with some man dancing and slow-mo head banging.