Wednesday’s End of Fashion gig at the University of Canberra Bar really struck me, as it was packed. The Canberra live music scene seems to have reached a zenith where Australian acts willing to play here for under $25 will come close to packing out, let’s hope local promoters spot this trend and take advantage of it.
Up first were Van She who played a really enjoyable set. Their blend of post rock, eighties pop and what ever else they want to throw in the mix was really awesome. The live set and the talent of Van She has made me eager to hear what they can pull off on a long player. ‘Sex City’ the current radio single received a great reception from the near capacity crowd.
The Cloud Room have received a warm reception here in Australia garnering a good amount of radio play on Triple J. The New York five piece also played a flawless set. Hearing their current singles ‘Hey Now Now’ and ‘Blackout’ live brought out just what a talented lot these New Yorkers were. In some ways it would have been great to see them play their own headlining show or even perhaps a mid afternoon slot at a festival, just to give them more than thirty minutes to show us their stuff.
As the half hour change over drew to a close the chant went up “End of Fashion, End of Fashion,” the crowd was getting restless and were desperate to see the evenings headliners. So as the lights faded to black the band walked onto stage to screams from the crowd. Again this evening it was a case of another great Western Australian band strutting their stuff. One of the early threads in the FasterLouder forums was entitled “End of Fashion are a Terrible Band” to whoever started that thread, if you’re still reading the site, I say you’re bloody wrong.
It was unfortunate that the End of Fashion had to overcome a couple of technical issues in their set, but like true professionals these were taken in the bands stride and not mentioned of. There were a couple of times when the gain in the microphones caused a little feedback, but thankfully none long nor loud enough to cause ears to bleed.
As you would expect the biggest crowd responses were saved for radio faves such as ‘Oh Yeah’, ‘She’s Love’, Too Careful, and ‘Lock Up Your Daughters’, but almost everything of their debut album had the crowd singing along and getting involved. There was of course the obligatory encore, but after the failure of the mixing crew to bring up the fugly lights and restart the iPod led some to believe that the set wasn’t over and that there may be a second encore. When the mikes went, the crowd followed, satisfied, yet ready to see another live show.
