The Naked and Famous at The Button Factory: March 5th 2011
Review by Nessy
Twenty four hours later and I’m still sore. Sore all over, sore feet, sore arms from waving around too much, sore back because I got elbowed. Sore throat from singing along too much. We left the venue just about able to walk and a jacket down, sign of a good night.
On Saturday night, The Button Factory played host to one of the most hotly tipped bands of the year ‘The Naked and Famous’. Sold out weeks ago, the pleasure of opening for the New Zealanders went to Cloud Control.
The band, who won The Australian Music Prize last week, rained down a set of poptastic tunes. Starting off with Mediation Song #2, it wasn’t long before they had the audience enthralled in their brand of psychedelic indie.
Cloud Control are a really interesting band, the four piece know how to crack out a seriously danceable song, as they did with ‘This is what I said’. ‘Deathcloud’ features a great build up while if you’re looking for a song with a stomping chorus, ‘This is what I said’ has it.
It’s hard to pin point exactly what Cloud Control sound like, catchy hooks with serious pop sensibilities but during ‘Gold Canary’ there are echoes of Beck with a Loser-esque rap. Either way they’ve done more than enough to convince me to head to their headline gig in the Academy in April.
The Naked and Famous take to the stage with a sub bass rumble, that gets you and shakes you from the inside out. The venue erupts as the band take to the stage fronted by Thom Powers and Alisa Xayalith. The audience doesn’t take much coaxing and as the band start into ‘All of This’, the audience are putty in their hands.
It’s hard not to be captivated by the band’s sound, big phat bass sound, layered with synths and dual vocals. The single, ‘Punching In A Dream’ just takes the frenzy up a notch. Powers acts like a man possessed, moving, throwing himself around the stage, with his guitar, without his guitar, it doesn’t matter. The slightest hand gesture from him has the crowd clapping along in time, singing the refrains, totally effortless.
The pounding thumping beats turn the night into a live discotheque, the audience jumping in time to the beat and on Powers’ command. Xayalith becomes a goddess for the throng, as the front row reach out just trying to grasp a finger tip.
The band and audience seem to meld. The audience knowing they are witnessing something special while the band recognise they have a sold out show without their album being released. While their album may not be released yet, the audience know all the lyrics and sing them back to the band.
There is a constant circle, the band egg on the audience which raises the band to another level. The band treat the crowd to tracks from ‘Passive Me, Aggressive You’, ‘The Sun’ ‘Frayed’ and ‘Girls Like You’ go down a treat.
Current single ‘Young Blood’ gives Xayalith a chance to take the spotlight and let her distinct vocals shine. The band whip the crowd up again before leaving the stage to deafening roars of approval. An encore of ‘Dadada’ delights the exhausted audience.
All the good things that have been said about The Naked and Famous is thoroughly deserved, next time though, they’re going to need a bigger venue. Me? I’ll need a week’s holiday after it. Amazing.