Calling All Cars @ Amplifier,Perth (10/09/11)

Wed 14th Sep, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Melbourne’s Redcoats opening set at Amplifier bar on Saturday night saw a couple of people dancing fanatically in the front row, the rest of the crowd seemed transfixed by vocalist Emilio Mercuri’s intimidating and somewhat discomforting stare. The last few rock and blues infused chords broke Mercuri’s spell over the audience as they finished their set.

After finishing the set, Mercuri’s demeanor seemed a lot more relaxed and a hell of a lot less daunting as he made his way through the crowd, chatting with punters before Boy in a Box made their way on the stage for the second set of the night.

With singer Tobias Priddle (looking suspiciously like American Pie’s Chris ‘Nova’ Klien) and the band clad in ‘Plain white T’s’; Melbournians Boy in a Box launched into their set with a string of poppy, indie-rock songs including the single that won them a fair bit of Triple J airplay, Moon Comes Up and the aggressive sounding Warriors but the biggest hit with the crowd was their newest song Glitter Gold Ruin.

Boy in a Box is indie pop at its very best; each song is as catchy as the last with joyous sounding melodies and toe-tapping beats, paired with Priddle’s strong and distinctive vocals, the songs are the ultimate in cleverly crafted pop. With their songs getting a lot of airplay on radio stations like Triple J, it looks like Boy in a Box have a pretty bright future in music to look forward to.

Calling All Cars finally made it on stage around eleven and the little band room at amps was packed with punters all jostling each other for a spot up front. Playing new single from second album Dancing With a Dead Man, Reptile early on in their set, Calling All Cars had the crowd in the palms of their hands from the very start. Highlights included the aforementioned Reptile, Triple J favourite Hold, Hold, Fire and the slower, angst-ridden Not Like Anybody. Throwing in ‘a song for the old school fans’ Animal, before launching into their own take on McLusky’s To Hell With Good Intentions, their 45 minute-ish set flew by.

Calling All Cars are one of the best bands to come out of Melbourne recently, their songs are catchy and memorable have just the right amount of grungy angst that you can listen to them at full bore without your housemates worrying that you’ve regressed into emo-ism.

Before playing their last song, singer Haydn Ing whipped out a camera to take a photo of the crowd, explaining, ’Coz you are just so fucking sexy’ which earned him a few squeals of delight from the females in the audience. They finished on a song from their first album Hold, Hold, Fire; Disconnect which obviously was a crowd favourite; half the crowd were singing/yelling along.