Charlie Mayfair are about to embark on their first national tour, kicking it off in style at a hometown show at The Zoo in Brisbane, to a crowd that was that mixture of wildly enthusiastic and cheerfully abusive that only comes from people you’ve known since high school.  The band rewarded them for their support with an incredibly tight show, playing hypnotic, imaginative pop, with a level of depth and maturity that you would expect from a much older band. 

However in the first half of the set, they didn’t give too much away. Highlight ‘Brother, Oh’ was sandwiched between a few songs that were nice, dreamy and easy to listen to, but didn’t give you much to hold on to and were fairly unmemorable. The band came out to play acoustic among the audience, which would have been really special for the people who were only centimetres from them, but for the rest of us it was hard to hear anything other than the calls to “shut the fuck up” from those trying desperately to listen.

Then came Architecture in Helsinki cover, “Heart it Races”. Maybe playing someone else’s song relaxed the pressure a bit, but here the band really seemed to let loose, giving the upbeat electro pop of AIH a little more heart and soul. Then, just to reassure us that they aren’t one of those bands whose best song is a cover, the switched gears to the swirling, emotionally raw beauty of “Tell Her”. A song about singer Hannah Shepard’s mum, it brought the band to another level of energy that had everyone in rapt attention.

This energy carried on through the rest of the set, climaxing in the obligatory percussion fest that it seems must end every indie pop show these days (I blame Jinja Safari) but was extremely fun none the less.

Charlie Mayfair are a very exciting Brisbane band, with an already mature and interesting sound, and after they’ve had a national tour under their belts, they’ve got the kind of spirit that makes great success seem almost assured. 

The Inland Sea are another product of an exciting trend in Australian Indie music. After years of dour, over serious,  almost mute musicians and uninteresting live shows, these guys are part of a growing group of bands with some spirit.  

The John Steel Singers, Jinja Safari, Boy and Bear and now The inland Sea are bringing music with heart and a show where, shock horror, the players look like they’re having fun. 

 The music is lively and melodic, propelled forward by an unobtrusive but vital  rhythm section. Too many bands, wanting to mimic the harmonies of Fleet Foxes or Mumford and Sons, force everyone in the band to sing, even if they’re not singers, and it shows. In this band however, everyone sing because they all have amazing voices, creating beautiful harmonies and a stunningly touching a capella moment as their final song.

The Inland Sea are arresting to watch, heartwarming to listen to and left me with a feeling of contented happiness. If this is really the way indie pop is going, sign me up.

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t know what to do with it. OMG NOW I HAVE A BLOG!

The last few times I’d seen The Middle East, I had been right at the front. Had I had the guts to run my fingers through the Jordan Ireland’s red hair as I so desperately wanted to, I could have. But through the combination of a game of hide and seek that got out of hand, and a misreading of Google maps, we turned up with about 15 minutes to go before they started, with a large crowd of nonchalant indie kids already assembled.

Despite this, from the first note of Black Death 1939, The Middle East had me enthralled. Mining the depths of their dark and challenging debut album, “I Want That You Are Always Happy”, the band did an incredible job of transporting their intricately layered, achingly beautiful sound to the stage. However, maybe it was the school hall aesthetics of The Old Museum, the Jordan and Rohin Jones’ awkward and taciturn stage presence (Rohin seemed visibly hostile, sporting a huge beard and truckers cap almost completely obscuring his face and a wincingly ironic Nickleback shirt) , or their refusal to play hit “Blood” or live favourite “Better Times”, but I seemed to be one of few people absorbed in the performance.

Underneath the gentle build of these songs, the held notes, the whispered vocals, was a steady stream of chatter and fidgeting from the crowd. This abated a few times during the concert, notably during album highlight “Deep Water”, a quietly incredible moment where no one seemed to take a breath and during the more radio friendly cuts “Jesus Came to My Birthday Party” and “Land Of The Bloody Unknown”. Maybe the people who were organised enough to get to the front had a different experience, but the chatting, watch checking people around me obviously weren’t quite as taken by the Middle East as I was. Which is a shame because this band creates truly special music that deserves a captive audience.

So I guess I’m doing this now too? Writing in more than 140 characters? I’m trying to learn to write things that don’t make me want to vomit everywhere, but this’ll probably just end up being another thing to distract me from it.

There’ll be a lot of music stuff. Some movie and TV stuff. Maybe a bit of personal stuff. Hopefully it’ll be funny sometimes. Just promise not to fall in love with me.

Oh okay, if you must.