Boy & Bear, Jinja Safari, Emma Louise @ The Governor Hindmarsh, Adelaide (20/05/2011)
The Governor Hindmarsh in Adelaide was the third stop on Boy & Bear's Autumn National tour; a tour that has seen them sell-out practically all of the twelve dates. Their concert at The Gov was an all-ages event, but there were noticeably fewer of the under-18s who usually take the opportunity to pack-out those types of gigs. The wide appeal of Boy & Bear's music was displayed by the varied ages in the crowd; plenty of twenty and thirty-somethings, and also quite a few older patrons who looked as though they might have made their way there straight from the office.
First on stage was the sweetly voiced Emma Louise, hailing from Brisbane. Armed with an acoustic guitar and backed only by her percussionist, Daniel, Emma was still able to attract the attention of a decent amount of the audience. She is an incredibly talented musician, especially at only a young age, and was a nice start to the concert. The stand-out of her set was Jungle; I'm not sure if this was because it was the most rhythmically heavy of her songs, or because I recognised it from several plays on Triple J.
Next up were Sydney's Jinja Safari. I watched with interest as they set up their stage with some fairly unusual looking and sounding instruments and noticed their outfits seemed to have (what I decided was) a "cowboy-hippie" look, so I had quite high-hopes that I would enjoy their set. They definitely didn't disappoint. Their music, which they describe as "forest rock", was incredibly catchy and energetic. The band seemed to be having so much fun on stage that it was infectious; you couldn't help feeling equally as joyous listening to them.
Light bulbs strung from the ceiling and quirky table-lamps were lit, before Boy & Bear took to the stage. Over the past year Boy & Bear have gone from strength to strength, helped along by some high-profile support slots and a number 5 ranking in the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown. This has naturally gained them many new fans, and it was clear that all those gathered around the front of the stage were there to enjoy the show and truly appreciated the band.
Boy & Bear gave the audience a preview of what they can expect to hear from the band in the future by including quite a few new songs in their set. However, there were still plenty of tracks that their fans are familiar with, such as Rabbit Song, Mexican Mavis, new song Feeding Line, and of course their Hottest 100 winner, a cover of Crowded House's Fall At Your Feet - which was met with much enthusiasm from the audience.
Unfortunately, the crowd closer to the bar at the back of the hotel didn't seem to share the rest of the audiences' enthusiasm. In between songs a constant chatter, the kind usually only heard during support acts, could be heard travelling from them. It's a shame that so many people thought it was appropriate to be so disrespectful to the band and ruin some of the experience for the rest of the crowd.
Boy & Bear sounded great and it's clear that their constant touring both in Australia and overseas has paid off in helping them to get their live sound down-pat. The only thing missing was some more engagement with the audience and a stronger stage-presence from the band.
This was my fifth time seeing Boy & Bear live, the second time with them as the headlining act, and I have enjoyed them more with each concert. They seem to be growing a bit more in confidence each time and they definitely have the song-writing skills to warrant the sold-out shows they are performing.
Chelsea McIntyre
First on stage was the sweetly voiced Emma Louise, hailing from Brisbane. Armed with an acoustic guitar and backed only by her percussionist, Daniel, Emma was still able to attract the attention of a decent amount of the audience. She is an incredibly talented musician, especially at only a young age, and was a nice start to the concert. The stand-out of her set was Jungle; I'm not sure if this was because it was the most rhythmically heavy of her songs, or because I recognised it from several plays on Triple J.
Next up were Sydney's Jinja Safari. I watched with interest as they set up their stage with some fairly unusual looking and sounding instruments and noticed their outfits seemed to have (what I decided was) a "cowboy-hippie" look, so I had quite high-hopes that I would enjoy their set. They definitely didn't disappoint. Their music, which they describe as "forest rock", was incredibly catchy and energetic. The band seemed to be having so much fun on stage that it was infectious; you couldn't help feeling equally as joyous listening to them.
Light bulbs strung from the ceiling and quirky table-lamps were lit, before Boy & Bear took to the stage. Over the past year Boy & Bear have gone from strength to strength, helped along by some high-profile support slots and a number 5 ranking in the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown. This has naturally gained them many new fans, and it was clear that all those gathered around the front of the stage were there to enjoy the show and truly appreciated the band.
Boy & Bear gave the audience a preview of what they can expect to hear from the band in the future by including quite a few new songs in their set. However, there were still plenty of tracks that their fans are familiar with, such as Rabbit Song, Mexican Mavis, new song Feeding Line, and of course their Hottest 100 winner, a cover of Crowded House's Fall At Your Feet - which was met with much enthusiasm from the audience.
Unfortunately, the crowd closer to the bar at the back of the hotel didn't seem to share the rest of the audiences' enthusiasm. In between songs a constant chatter, the kind usually only heard during support acts, could be heard travelling from them. It's a shame that so many people thought it was appropriate to be so disrespectful to the band and ruin some of the experience for the rest of the crowd.
Boy & Bear sounded great and it's clear that their constant touring both in Australia and overseas has paid off in helping them to get their live sound down-pat. The only thing missing was some more engagement with the audience and a stronger stage-presence from the band.
This was my fifth time seeing Boy & Bear live, the second time with them as the headlining act, and I have enjoyed them more with each concert. They seem to be growing a bit more in confidence each time and they definitely have the song-writing skills to warrant the sold-out shows they are performing.
Chelsea McIntyre