The Naked and Famous have been busy little bees of late. Fresh off the back of the Big Day Out tour earlier in the year, and touring currently with the Groovin’ the Moo festival tour, the band found a little time to do a handful of sideshows. And oh what a treat it is to see this band live.
Opening the night at the Hi-Fi were Brisbane locals Vancouver Sleep Clinic. First off, who are this band and why have I never heard of them before? Have I been sleeping under log for too long? This band ooze atmospheric, ambient awesomeness. While I am usually the first to say that too many reverberant effects on the vocals are an easy cover-up for a shitty voice, VSC’s frontman has a sensational set of pipes and uses the effects to his advantage to create dreamy and convincing falsetto over the top of the rest of the band.
What I loved most about this band however, was the complex layering in the texture of all their songs. Each instrument had their own intricate liens, which were so diverse and essential to creating the atmosphere in each song. There were times where the song stripped back to a single instrument then re-layered each part individually before getting back into the groove. Here was where this magic really shone through. Amazing. A beautiful set lads.
After all I’d heard, and after all I’d read, as a first time live listener of The Naked and Famous, I had super high hopes for the New Zealanders. Was I disappointed? Hell freaking no! The band are super polished while retaining a certain charm and charisma that only come from a true love of performing. They opened up the set with a duo of songs from last years release In Rolling Waves choosing to start the set quite mellow with “A Stillness” before turning to their latest single “Hearts Like Ours”. When they got to “In Rolling Waves” Alisa Xayalith, in her super cute way, got the crowd involved by getting us to sing along in the chorus. It was pretty rad sound, but nothing quite like what was to come towards the end of the set.
It was really nice to see that the band played an equally balanced number of songs from each of their studio releases. They toned things down a little with “The Sun” before getting right back into it with “Frayed” and “I Kill Giants”. Pretty sure that “I Kill Giants” was my favourite song of the set. There’s just something about it that is so extremely powerful. Couple this together with the super personal meaning behind the song, and it is incredible. A truly amazing moment in the set.
We all knew it was coming, and we weren’t disappointed! “All of this” and “Punching In A Dream”. It was a pretty genius move putting them back-to-back though. Good choice. That moment I mentioned before? The crowd got super vocal on both of these tracks and created an atmosphere worthy of this festival savvy band. They “closed” the set with “No Way”, which I felt was fitting, as it nicely sums up that this band can be tender, yet also rock the out. And what would a set be without a fake Encore. I love how all bands do it. Needless to say, they closed properly with “Young Blood”. What would a The Naked and Famous gig be without it!
This band is so hot right now it’s frightening! And this is just the start of the tour for them. They head off straight after their Groovin’ the Moo and sideshow commitments to the UK and Europe to strut their stuff there. It is an absolute privilege to watch this band do what they do, and see them enjoying it so much.
