This gig at the Cambridge Hotel was hailed as Big City Exile’s homecoming show.  This five-piece from Newcastle spent much of April playing in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. During Big City Exile’s recent Whirlwind Romance tour, the band played in notable venues like The Annandale Hotel in Sydney and The Espy in Melbourne – no small feat for a young band who had not even played in Sydney before.

Earlier in the evening we were treated to the music of The Understudy, Melbourne’s Valanti and The Seabellies.  The Understudy is one girl with a beautifully vulnerable voice, a bunch of lovely and personal songs, a guitar, occasionally a keyboard and harmonica. Valanti had a powerful sound with solid rock songs, fronted by a scantily clad female singer; unfortunately at times the sound got a little too powerful overwhelming the space and making some songs a little difficult to listen to.  The Seabellies, who are fast earning a positive live reputation, entertained with their unique style of dreamy, experimental indie pop.

Big City Exile has a unique sound, that in my opinion is different from a lot of emerging bands. A Big City Exile show is a lesson in contrast.  Moody, atmospheric songs inclined to caress the ears, change to jagged and chaotic; suitable for a good punch in the face of rock. Anthemic and extremely catchy crowd favourite, ‘The Triangle Song’ has gained a following through the bands MySpace profile, rotation on Sydney’s FBI Radio and ABC’s RAGE.

Big City Exile are Mark Forester on lead vocals, Sean Roche and Shay The Incorruptible Sullivan on guitars, Savion Barwegen on drums and Nathan McKenna on bass.  The chemistry and talent of these five musicians prove Big City Exile to be even more engaging.  Barwegen and McKenna lay down strong foundations; Forester jumps around on stage with the kind of energy afforded to a little kid left alone with a packet of lollies and a trampoline; while Roche and Sullivan are a dynamic pairing who create guitar sounds with a smooth contrast from disjointed and menacing to soft and beautiful.

Front man Mark Forester’s performance looks like a series of jump cuts* played out in real time.  His stage presence is energetic, frenetic, chaotic and utterly captivating.  Later, with arms outstretched to the dancing crowd, he reaches fragile vocal ranges, evoking memories of Jeff Buckley.

Fans can only hope next time the band decides to tour, that they don’t leave us waiting too long in exile.


Footnote:
*Jean Luc Godard was a founder of the French New Wave film movement.  He invented the film technique known as the ‘jump cut’.  As film myth says, film length constraints caused Godard to remove some of the footage from his 1960 film Breathless.  New to film making, he decided just to cut bits here and there, and thus my friends, the jump cut was born. The camera stays on the image and cuts, causing a jumpy effect, instead of cutting between two different images.