Dukes of Windsor, Mr Sandman,The Fault @ Amplifier Bar,Perth (26/5/2007)

Mon 28th May, 2007 in Gig Reviews

Melbourne quintet Dukes of Windsor rocked the Amplifier bar on Saturday night, with their fashionable blend of electro rock. Supported by local rock pigs Mr Sandman and Perth indie favourites The Fault, Dukes Of Windsor put on a show that left the audience flushed with excitement.

Mr Sandman seemed an odd choice of support act, their music being a sort of ode to AC/DC bogan rock but despite the small number of people actually standing inside to watch them, they strutted their stuff for all they were worth, and were obviously enjoying themselves on stage. They were a good choice of band to play while the punters arrived and got their first few drinks inside them, because their sound filled the almost empty room with distorted three chord riffs, driving everyone outside, to fill the courtyard and give the appearance of a packed venue. They played a tight set, but the crowd didn’t seem to be in the mood for them.

Evidently, The Fault were more to the crowd’s tastes, the courtyard all but emptied as they struck their first chord. By the time they were one minute into their first song, the dancefloor was packed with enthusiastic fans watching and dancing along. The Basslines were melodic and Akemi Corbett’s keyboard and backing vocals provided a nice counterpoint to the standard drum and guitarwork giving the songs enough originality to hint at bigger things from the band in the near future.

Dukes of Windsor’s frontman Jack Weaving clearly relished the attention of the crowd, swaggering back and forth across the stage, perching himself on the edge of the stage or on speakers, swinging from his Microphone cord and posing kindly for the photographers in the audience. Weaving’s versatile vocal stylings, and that many of their songs are written against the drum beat gives the Dukes their distinctive sound. Their music is electro enough that you can dance to it, but rock enough that you don’t have to contend with a crowd of loved-up punters hugging you and telling you how much they love you, man.

The Dukes have been on that upward spiral of success where they tour and play bigger shows with every week that passes, but as yet they haven’t forgotten what it is to entertain a crowd, with all members acknowledging the audience and interacting as far as they were able while performing some newies, some oldies, and of course their current longstanding successful hit The Others to the obvious singingalong joy of the audience.

Despite a long touring schedule, the boys were in top form, giving a polished performance without it appearing stale, and never taking the audience for granted, they pulled out all stops to entertain the room. 16 of the 17 people I asked after the show said they loved it with shiny eyes and huge grins, and the 17th was too busy trying to hook up with someone to explain himself, although the object of his attentions was happy to be distracted for long enough to tell me that she was very impressed with the performance.

We are likely to see the Dukes of Windsor playing a much bigger venue next time around.