Bluejuice, Millions, Step-Panther @ The Standard, Darlinghurst (17/09/11)
Sydney’s live music scene has copped a battering of late with a number of venues closing their doors. Thankfully brand new room The Standard, situated just off Oxford Street in Darlinghurst has helped to reinject some life and entertainment back into the CBD. I’m not entirely sure what the exact capacity of this room is, say around 500 or maybe even just a touch more but the unusual almost L-shape warehouse loft conversion room seems to be spacious enough to hold a good number of punters.
Quite a few people had made there way upstairs and inside to see opening act Step-Panther. These guys are an unusual mix of fast-paced guitar riffs and the odd track that could even be passed for shoe-gaze with distorted, hard to distinguish lyrics over lots of power chords. They were an unusual choice for an opening act compared to the next act, and wildly different from the headliners.
Middle act Millions were definitely a bit more suited to the crowd that was starting to expand quite rapidly. Their dirty indie rock with the occasional fuzzy guitars and fast paced drumming could easily be likened to The Strokes or Arctic Monkeys but with a more relaxed attitude and feel onstage. Their Triple J spun track ‘Those Girls’ got a favourable response from some of the audience.
Bluejuice are well known for adorning all sorts of ridiculous outfits and costumes onstage, and tonight was no exception, with the entire band decked out in glow in the dark and reflective tape strips, I guess the best visual representation would liken it to Tron running rampant with a bunch of instruments. The band have built their reputation on being energetic and have it in spades, churning out fresh material ‘The Recession’ and ‘Act Your Age’ fairly early in the set and getting the crowd bouncing despite these being completely new songs. Track ‘Aspen, New York’ is probably the slowest paced tune in the set and manages to bring the pace down a little but it hardly dampens the party mood in the room.
With added vocalist Elana Stone, joining her brother Jake and Stav onstage, she manages to hold her own both vocally and physically, matching the guys for just as much pogo-esque hopping and still holding her notes which is particularly noticeable in this tune. Their lead single from their forthcoming third album ‘Company’ is called ‘Cheap Trix’ and is Bluejuice once again doing what they do best, crack catchy chorus and all it wants to do is make the crowd jump around. If this song as well as some of the others we heard earlier are an indication of where the band are heading musically, it looks like they may possibly be taking a leaf out of The Presets’ or Empire Of The Sun’s books and pushing a bit more into electro.
As the band pulled into the second half of the set we were treated to more familiar tracks like ‘Work’ and ‘The Reductionist’ and they brought the room to a seething writhing sweaty pumping mess with ‘Vitriol’ and closing the night with ‘Broken Leg’.
I was also pleased to see that Jake Stone didn’t inflict any physical injury to himself before, during (he did climb a speaker stack and precariously perched himself atop for one song) and after this performance. Somebody needs to wrap him in bubble wrap in case he causes himself more damage, now there’s a potential new costume idea.
The best thing about Bluejuice as an artistic whole though, is their ability to inject so much energy and excitement into every single live performance. Despite a good portion of the set consisting of new material that people weren’t familiar with, so long as the boys coaxed the punters into jumping along, it hardly seemed to matter. By the looks on the happy faces of the crowd as the houselights came back on, a good time had been had by all.
Carina Nilma
Quite a few people had made there way upstairs and inside to see opening act Step-Panther. These guys are an unusual mix of fast-paced guitar riffs and the odd track that could even be passed for shoe-gaze with distorted, hard to distinguish lyrics over lots of power chords. They were an unusual choice for an opening act compared to the next act, and wildly different from the headliners.
Middle act Millions were definitely a bit more suited to the crowd that was starting to expand quite rapidly. Their dirty indie rock with the occasional fuzzy guitars and fast paced drumming could easily be likened to The Strokes or Arctic Monkeys but with a more relaxed attitude and feel onstage. Their Triple J spun track ‘Those Girls’ got a favourable response from some of the audience.
Bluejuice are well known for adorning all sorts of ridiculous outfits and costumes onstage, and tonight was no exception, with the entire band decked out in glow in the dark and reflective tape strips, I guess the best visual representation would liken it to Tron running rampant with a bunch of instruments. The band have built their reputation on being energetic and have it in spades, churning out fresh material ‘The Recession’ and ‘Act Your Age’ fairly early in the set and getting the crowd bouncing despite these being completely new songs. Track ‘Aspen, New York’ is probably the slowest paced tune in the set and manages to bring the pace down a little but it hardly dampens the party mood in the room.
With added vocalist Elana Stone, joining her brother Jake and Stav onstage, she manages to hold her own both vocally and physically, matching the guys for just as much pogo-esque hopping and still holding her notes which is particularly noticeable in this tune. Their lead single from their forthcoming third album ‘Company’ is called ‘Cheap Trix’ and is Bluejuice once again doing what they do best, crack catchy chorus and all it wants to do is make the crowd jump around. If this song as well as some of the others we heard earlier are an indication of where the band are heading musically, it looks like they may possibly be taking a leaf out of The Presets’ or Empire Of The Sun’s books and pushing a bit more into electro.
As the band pulled into the second half of the set we were treated to more familiar tracks like ‘Work’ and ‘The Reductionist’ and they brought the room to a seething writhing sweaty pumping mess with ‘Vitriol’ and closing the night with ‘Broken Leg’.
I was also pleased to see that Jake Stone didn’t inflict any physical injury to himself before, during (he did climb a speaker stack and precariously perched himself atop for one song) and after this performance. Somebody needs to wrap him in bubble wrap in case he causes himself more damage, now there’s a potential new costume idea.
The best thing about Bluejuice as an artistic whole though, is their ability to inject so much energy and excitement into every single live performance. Despite a good portion of the set consisting of new material that people weren’t familiar with, so long as the boys coaxed the punters into jumping along, it hardly seemed to matter. By the looks on the happy faces of the crowd as the houselights came back on, a good time had been had by all.
Carina Nilma