w/ White Arrows, Opossum
Jinja Safari has been touring the country on their Blind Date tour, taking along with them White Arrows, hailing from LA, as well as Opossum,
from across the Tasman. It’s nice to see Jinja Safari playing the
larger venue that is The HiFi, however, for some reason or another, by
the time they were ready to get their set under way, the venue was
probably just over half full.
To open the night was LA band, White Arrows. These guys are
all kinds of rad! They have a heavy electro-pop kind of sound that was
well received by those that made the effort to get to the venue early.
It’s the kind of music that you instinctively pulse along to. I’m not
talking the slight head bob, but the whole body type of pulse. Their
tune “Stay at Home” had quite a different feel to the music they had
showcased so far, but it was still really involving. Their second last
song has to be mentioned, as it featured a synthesised riff that sounded
as though it was created from old school computer sounds. But, not only
was it novel, it was catchy as all hell. These lads do put on a good,
fun show, and I do believe their first tour to Australia has won them
many new fans.
Opossum confused me tonight. I wanted to like them, and to
appreciate them, however there were just so many things off with their
performance that it made it very hard. The fact that the keyboard player
was at a right angle to the audience so you basically couldn’t see her
face was not the best of ideas. I understand why, in that for the
improvised and experimental nature of some of the songs, all members of
the three piece had to be able to see each other, but it made it so the
band lost all their impact. Also, in the mix, the keys overpowered and
the vocals didn’t stand out at all. You couldn’t understand a word they
were singing about, nor even when they were speaking to the audience.
Their music isn’t bad, not at all, however these things mentioned made
it difficult to enjoy what they were producing. When the girl picked up
her guitar for the last two songs, the whole style of their music
changed. It was more structured, thus more “appealing” to the wider
audience.
Jinja Safari. Holy Wow. This band is amazing. They opened the
night with “Hiccus” closely followed by “Families”. Tonight was a night
for the new as well as the old. The band played heaps of new songs,
while playing old favourites like “Peter Pan” as well. Their latest
single “Toothless Grin” is a sensational song and really shows the
direction the band are heading in. As for showmanship, these flamboyant
lads are second to none! They graced the stage, jumping over things and
beating their chests, and they didn’t stop there. There was even a
moment when crazy man, Papa Knight, clambered onto one of the speakers,
making him over seven feet in the air, before jumping off and running
back to his synth. Jinja Safari have all the normal instruments you
would expect from a band, but add some fun stuff, including a keytar,
wood flute, xylophone and their signature sitar.
Jinja Safari keep going from strength to strength; they’re amazing
one show, and the next time you see them, they’re even better. The
stupid thing about this gig is the fact that there weren’t enough people
in the room experiencing the incredible things these three bands were
producing. Meh, they missed an simply sensational show.
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