The Get Up Kids, Saves TheDay, Gyroscope @ The Arena1/5/04

Tue 4th May, 2004 in Gig Reviews

Expectations were high tonight as The Get Up Kids and Saves The Day hit Brisbane’s Arena with Perth boys Gyroscope in tow. The anticipation kept building as the time passed. When 8pm came and went, the queue was treated to sound check after sound check, but the doors never seemed to open up soon enough.

The agonising wait was worth it when Gyroscope hit the stage. Unfortunately it was a shaky start for the boys, almost being upstaged by porn on the sound guys laptop to the side of the stage, leads not working, a cymbal breaking and a dodgy microphone stand. All bad incidents aside, lead singer Daniel Sanders still broke out his best rock moves, bassist Brad Campbell screamed the house down with his back-up vocals whilst the crowd was treated to songs from their last few EP’s and new songs that will be appearing on the new album due in June. Finishing off the set to a growing crowd with the latest single Safe Forever the boys wrapped it up in fine style, they are definitely ones to watch live.

First up in the Vagrant Records hit parade was Saves The Day. Their first ever Brisbane show began with the excellent At Your Funeral. From the first note, the crowd went crazy singing along to every word until the end of the set. Singer Chris Conley really saves the bands live performance from becoming a boring mix tape, being the only member making an effort to really connect with the crowd. Musically though, the band were almost faultless and delivered an excellent set. Many old favourites such as Freakish and Firefly were standouts, and newer tracks Anywhere With You and Morning in the Moonlight incited much screaming, jumping, and general excitement. While I did expect a little more energy, Saves the Day were still great to see and wouldn’t hesitate to see them again should they return.

Finally, The Get Up Kids stepped on stage, picked up their instruments while keyboardist James Dewees began playing what sounded like the intro to INXS’s Never Tear Us Apart. Much to the surprise of everyone in the crowd, the rest of the band joined in, and played note for note, the only good cover of an INXS track, I think I have ever heard. (Anyone remember the massacring of the same track by Tom Jones and Natalie Imbruglia? I wish I didn’t). After a huge reaction to the surprise introduction, the band animatedly charged through many of their own hits. Lead singer Matthew Pryor and Guitarist/Singer Jim Suptic were talkative and excited, joking around and describing the feeling in Brisbane as magical.

The group work off each other really well and were quite entertaining to watch, though after a while drummer Ryan Pope appeared to get bored, and started throwing drumsticks at guitarist Jim, much to the disgust of the security guard who copped a few in the head. Keyboardist James made the keyboards look like one of the most fun instruments in the world. In general, the set was just faultless, and featured Holiday, Coming Clean, Red Letter Day, I’ll Catch You… I could go on. After leaving the stage for what seemed like about 30 seconds they returned for an encore of a few songs including their excellent cover of Close To Me.

All three bands were impressive, Gyroscope are ones to watch, as I think they could be moving on to great things, but The Get Up Kids are definitely a band you shouldn’t miss if you ever have the chance - they are an excellent live act.