Sculling on stage. Chip shots. Burping into mics. Bethany Constentino is living proof that you can take the girl out of the Valley, but not the Valley out of the girl. Here in Australia for the second time, for the Big Day Out tour and a string of sideshows, Best Coast played to a sweltering crowd at the Corner Hotel, with lots of alcohol, and even more sass.
Supporting them were Melbourne band Pop Singles (dreamy pop, good stuff that you can definitely see more than once) and Brisbane kids Dune Rats, with their infectiousness and youth, lots of life and raucousness. They warmed up a pretty warm crowd, and you could tell they were seriously stoked to be there, forming a cohesive line up that progressed smoothly towards the riff-heavy surf pop of Best Coast.
Nice and punctual, they opened with “The End”, much noisier than expected and it can definitely be said that whoever has issues with ‘whiny girl bands’ just has to see this girls live show to know that it’s not all high-pitched auto tuning with Bethany, she actually has a voice and presence. Which is what you expect in a frontwoman, and don’t really get a lot of the time.
She followed up with “Crazy For You”, informed us that Melbourne was “’Def my fav place”, and dropped a little line about festivals being full of egos, and it’s great to be playing a venue, with a few people agreeing with her on that one.
“Goodbye” was definitely a stand out, being much louder and that guitar just rang out really good (despite the slightly irritating crackling of the speakers), and “Bratty B” was as surfy as surf-pop can get, another good egg!
She took a little breather by introducing this bunch of kids to what she calls the Chip Shot. “ You take a Dorito, tequila, a wedge of lime. You lick the Dorito, do the shot, and eat the lime”. Much like she said later on in the night, Australia really brings out the best in her, enjoying Cruisers on stage, being introduced to the word ‘scull’, instead of ‘chug’ (of which she readily obliged) and something was said about vasectomies.
Most of the Crazy For You album was played, with a few new songs, off their soon-to-be-released second record, of which she promised to bring to Australia. Encoring with a slightly mish-mashed version of a song off a project with Jon Brian, she let everyone know that if she fucked up, she’d play something else, and she did, so we ended with “Up All Night” another one off the forthcoming sophmore album.
All in all, it was good to have them back, not a bad night! Enjoy the chip shots.
– Zahra Khamissa
