Birds of Tokyo, Boy In A Box @Forum Theatre, Melbourne(25/09/2011)

Sat 24th Sep, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Boy In A Box were happy to play to a filling Forum Theatre as if it were their own crowd, even if the crowd wasn’t returning the favour. Tobias Priddle, front man to the Melbourne trio, was all confidence, chatting a lot between songs to gauge his audience and talk the band up just a bit more each time. Happy to announce they’d broken their “Melbourne curse” – that is, something bad happening every time they play at home – Boy In A Box benefited not only from a lack of mishaps, but from the gift of decent smoke and lights not always granted to the support slot. By the end of their set they hadn’t left the biggest impression, though; the stock standard kind of anthem-rock not exactly on par with the more glamorous stuff of the night’s headliners.

Opening to a dark blue hue and gurgling music, Birds of Tokyo could have entered the stage in scuba gear, but the “underwater” intro was actually supposed to be taken seriously. The room had eventually filled out by the time BOT appeared, but the size of the room was interesting; seemingly, it was both an excuse for the band to play the Forum because they just wanted to play in that space, but also an indication that the band isn’t currently at its commercial peak (they did play a sold out tour three times this size last year). The downsize (not that a Forum sized crowd is a bad thing) might also have been due to the high proportion of fans being preoccupied by the AFL down the road.

Once the band was underway – hitting off with Broken Bones – there was little fanfare. The band were getting their money’s worth with the lighting technician, blaring strobe lights like the stage was a bomb site – a trick that was used to great effect on several occasions, but not overdone. But apart from the space they were playing in, BOT’s set quickly became quite familiar for anyone who’d seen them before.

The problem might actually be a complement to the band, but you could consider it a problem nonetheless: they’re perfectionists. And they succeed at getting things right a lot of the time, this show being no exception. If you’re not a fan of BOT’s music, then of course you will find personal faults in what they do. However, for the fans it’s hard to see them slip up, which means for anyone who’s seen them before you can pretty much pick how things are going to go down.

Amongst the set list, the familiar oldies came out, like An Ode To Death, Wayside and Desperate, the last of which added a certain grunt to the show when played before the more polished If This Ship Sinks (I Give In). Ian Kenny must have felt blissful with how the Forum treated his voice, but aside from his singing and usual dinosaur-dance antics, he wasn’t offering too much more (banter consisted of one liners for the most part: “This song’s about Monday!” “This is fucking cool!”). Circles offered a perfect opportunity for Kenny and the Forum to find the best unity, but the magnificent track was seriously faulted by the overbearing noise from the crowd.

With BOT planning to hide again after this tour and prepare some new material, this show was a good chance to test the waters with anything new they had up their sleeves. One such number appeared, presumably titled This Fire, which is bound to be a festival staple for the band next summer with its very easy to learn and chant chorus. While they only offered one new song, it was quite short, which could be an exception to BOT song writing, or perhaps a sign of changes to come?

The set rounded out with a string of hits for the band, Sihouettic standing aside as usual set closer for the fresher single, Wild At Heart, and the obvious crowd pleaser Plans being saved to seal off the encore. All of these went down very well, with the band proving how tight a unit they are. And with that, Birds of Tokyo bowed out to Melbourne for a while, with promise to return equipped with a new lot of songs. They’ll be warmly welcomed back when they do – it’ll be interesting to see if they can become more than they are now.