Cage the Elephant @ TheNorthcote Social Club,Melbourne (31/01/12)

Wed 1st Feb, 2012 in Gig Reviews

Local boys and fellow Big Day Outers Loon Lake provide support for Cage The Elephant and as always its good to see a support act not only getting a good response but filling the room, even if it is the intimate space of The Social Club. Musically Loon Lake aren’t anything outstandingly original, sounding like a combination of nearly every post Arctic Monkeys indie pop band with their boppy upbeat rhythms and lyrics on tracks like Into the Office and Bad to Me. However what they lack in originality they make up for in energy and demeanor, with their affable natures poured into the surfy tunes. The highlight is the twee In The Summer which is probably what The Strokes would sound like if they made a surf rock song.

Entering to the high pitched wine of feedback Cage the Elephant launch straight Into In One Ear. It’s an immediate testament to the hectic nature of the band, and in particular frontman Matthew Shultz, that in the middle of their opening track Shultz haphazardly stage dives into the crowd. More than any of the bands recordings there is a sense of raw punk volatility as in the messy version of 2024 in which Shultz proceeds to manicly dance like a monkey around stage.

The writhing crowd is immediately drawn in by his energy as the rest of the band are happy to stand back and lay the backing for his antics. Looking like he has walked straight off the set of Dazed and Confused, the clip for the Pumpkins 1979, or some other vision of the seventies through the eyes of the nineties, Shultz’s pure volatile nature is what makes such an enticing front man when he’s not diving into the audience he’s riffing non-sequiturs about punching like an Irish man or using scarves as protection from kangaroos. His energy never lets up throughout a set that includes the soulful Aberdeen, the sci-fi Tiny Little Robots or Back Against the Wall.

The cowbell heavy Lotus draws out the distinctive southern Kentucky drawl and elevates it with a thick bass rhythm. By the time we come to Around My Head Shultz spontaneously decides to stop mid song to take a much needed breather. Flow highlights one of the few slow moments of a lightning quick set, while the grunge tinged sarcasm of Indy Kidz devolves into buzzed out noise rock. Back Stabbin’ Betty, Rubber Ball and Shake me Down round out the set before closing with Sabretooth Tiger in which Shultz again launches into the crowd this time kneeling on the hands of audience members and resting his head on the ceiling before rolling around in a fit and continuing to scream raucous lyrics.

An encore sees the ridiculously catchy Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked played before a typically unpredictable ending where Shultz spear tackles a fan off stage before dragging willing or not into a crowd surf, finishing with him surfing his way to the exit.