Tin Can Radio, Tales In Space,The Shiny Brights, Sunny Days@ The Zoo (19/08/2011)

Mon 22nd Aug, 2011 in Gig Reviews

A small but loyal crowd of fans were witness to what may have been Tin Can Radio’s most rock and roll moment to date at The Zoo on Saturday night, featuring Tales in Space, The Shiny Brights and Sunny Days.

Melbourne’s Sunny Days and Adelaide’s The Shiny Brights played to a dismally empty venue at the start of the night, but both bands still managed to put on highly entertaining and energetic sets, showcasing some of their catchy indie tunes. Despite the lack of punters, both bands handle the crowd size professionally and still seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves.

As The Zoo slowly started filling up, Sydney’s Tales in Space took to the stage, combining the traditional three piece set up with synths for both the guitarist and bassist. Unfortunately Tales in Space got a little bit lost under all the layers of sound and after the catchy, danceable sets of Sunny Days and The Shiny Brights, Tales in Space’s set fell a little flat.

Tin Can Radio’s set started off with a long instrumental, showing off the boys’ musical prowess, with dream like guitar riffs and spacey synth sounds. Throughout their set, the boys continued to mix it up, easily switching from shoe gazing jams to out and out rock, flinging themselves around the stage and head banging in slow motion.

Their energetic and chaotic stage presence was echoed by the punters, who joined in the wild flailing of limbs with complete and utter abandon. So complete and utter was the abandon of both crowd and band that suddenly, approximately three quarters of the way through their allotted set time, lead singer Al Murray announced a quick break to ‘pop (bassist) *Jack Potter*’s shoulder into place’.

To many a sane person, this may have signalled the end of their set, but, much to the surprise of the concerned crowd, the band soon announced they would be back on stage for one more song before heading off to get proper medical help. Potter soon re-emerged back on stage, picked up his bass, and rocked out, albeit sitting down, for one final song, complete with his slow motion head banging. Crazy? Perhaps a bit. Impressive? Most definitely.

To crowd surf, scull a few beers on stage or perform guitar gymnastics may be the trademarks of rock and roll, but to continue playing despite popping out your shoulder – now that is true rock and roll. Combining both musical talent, charm, charisma, and slightly crazy ability to withstand pain, Tin Can Radio proved that the Brisbane music scene has still got the knack of producing excellent indie bands.