polaroids of androids

Nov 3, 2007

Gig Review: The Vines + Youth Group + Red Riders + The Mess Hall + The Silents @ Metro Theatre - 02/11/2007

Ivy League Records, a staple in the Sydney rock scene, celebrated ten years in business last night with an action-packed show at the Metro Theatre.

In addition to the news a couple weeks back that event was going to be a single show instead of being spread over two nights, we recieved word during the week that both The City Lights and The Monarchs had pulled out of the event. They had however been replaced by Sydney duo The Mess Hall who signed with the label in September. For us, who have overly mentioned how much we like The Mess Hall live this was a nice surprise.

One of Ivy League's more recent signings, Perth's The Silents, kicked things off with an impressive set.

Their sound has definately moved forward since the last time I saw them at Spectrum around a year and a half ago. Their current single 23 is getting steady airplay and their debut album is scheduled to come out sometime before the end of the year.

Only about a month ago I was able to catch The Mess Hall launch their new album in a nice intimate bar in Kings Cross. Their live intensity shines through in smaller venues and although they belted out their tunes with their normal gusto they did seem a little bit lost on the large stage.

At this point the crowd - a nice mix of 25% underage kids, 25% guys who love The Vines and 50% guest list - was starting to fill up.

Local heroes Red Riders played a highly impressive set filled with some of their older songs but mainly pulling from their 2006 album Replica Replica.

Unfortunately, I spent a large amount of Youth Group's set in deep conversations about a whole lot of things that I can't recall now and didn't take any photos. They didn't play Forever Young - which was awesome as it was definately starting to define them. They closed out their set with the fantastic Shadowland, Definately one of the highlights of the night.

The Vines don't play live all that much in recent times and, understandably, those that are fans of them jumped at this chance to see them perform with the area in front of the stage full from around 9pm.

They definately still have a pretty solid fanbase and, regardless of all the bullshit surrounding the life and times of Craig Nicholls over the past couple of years, they are still a highly entertaining band.

Last night Nicholls looking healthy and in good spirit as he ripped through an hour long set featuring old tracks such as Highly Evolved, Outtathaway and In The Jungle as well as many from their newest album, Vision Valley including Anysound, Don't Listen To The Radio and the fantastic punk tune Gross Out. Their set flowed nicely as they mainly drew on the more high energy tracks from their three albums and slotted in the slower ballads at the right times.

They returned for a free track encore which included their breakthrough song Get Free and their infamous cover of Outkast's Miss Jackson before closing with Fuck The World to a crowd which had been well and truly whipped up into a early-90s-grunge-like frenzy.

Although managed by Winterman & Goldstein (the management arm of Ivy League) since their beginning, The Vines have now officially signed a record deal with Ivy League. They will be heading off to Los Angeles at the end of this month to record their fourth album. If their performance last night was anything to go by I think we can expect a re-birth and somewhat of a return to their distinct early sound.