The xx step out to a full yet oddly subdued Festival Hall tonight. The band take the stage with an air of carefully weighted composure, deliberately and immediately accordant with the practiced reflection and attention to detail that beds their recordings.
The London-based trio’s first tour to these shores was as a mid-afternoon curio on the bill of the 2010 Laneway Festival, playing the Melbourne leg to some 800 people – a point bassist and co-vocalist Oliver Sim hastens to mention during one of several spells of heartfelt veneration pointed at the crowd.
Three years later and after the astounding yet somewhat improbable success of their debut album xx and last year’s follow up, Coexist, they’re one of the most revered acts in the world. It’s a point cemented on this tour by the rapid sellout of the largest mid-sized room that Melbourne has to offer.
The modulated synth intro to ‘Try’ is already swirling through the venue as the trio approach their instruments and Sim’s voice lights up, slightly off kilter at first, before settling harmoniously into the mix. It proves an inspired opener for the set, allowing space for the intertwining vocals of Sim and Romy Madley Croft while producer wunderkind Jamie xx’s subtle dynamics anchor the lyrical contemplations.
The band offer faithful renditions of ‘Heart Skipped A Beat’, ‘Crystalised’ and ‘Chained’, before the cultivated restraint of their songwriting gives way to a distinct urge for expansiveness.
Using the rare opportunity of ‘Reunion’s’ upbeat four-on-the-floor rhythm as a vehicle for exploration, The xx head boldly into the remix territory more synonymous with Jamie xx’s club show.
It’s the tasteful addition of these club elements that propels the band on a sonic excursion beyond wistful/lustful musings and pursuit of negative space. Unfortunately this capricious move seems to bewilder a significant portion of the audience, who appear to have little interest in these mid-tempo space jams.
Such is the awkward confluence of the band’s cult and commercial followings. To this end, The xx are in a rare and almost impossibly precarious position. They’ve crafted two albums of forward-thinking ‘night music’ and inadvertently become the vanguards of intimate, minimal electronic pop, laying foundations for the likes of James Blake and The Weeknd to achieve significant acclaim.
With conspicuous influences ranging as broadly as Young Marble Giants, Chromatics, and Aaliyah, their recent commercial success and consolidation of sound from xx to Coexist almost begs a departure from this formula, as winsome as it currently appears.
It’s hard to deny that the evolution towards club music fits them like a glove, a point made again with a staccatoed, bass-heavy reworking of ‘Shelter’, which sees Jamie xx operating with a cool fluidity, incorporating a number of MPCs and controllers, synths, drums and percussive elements. He traverses his sizeable workstation methodically, counting each drum and sample trigger point with a tap of foot and head nod.
Despite their air of remoteness, The xx are clearly enjoying themselves. Before the 75-minute show is over, both Croft and Sim have gone to great lengths to register their sincere gratitude to the crowd. This is an earnest, reflexive modesty from a band clearly humbled by their immediate success.
‘Infinity’ closes out the main set, proving as invigorating a choice as ‘Try’ was an opener. The transient, gentle guitar folds inelegantly into Jamie xx’s cymbal crashes, introducing a sonic friction rare in their generally hushed, atmospheric soundscapes.
Finishing the night with legitimate hits ‘Intro’ and ‘Angels’, The xx again translate a deft songwriting touch with a stylistic tip of the cap to the New Romantics, sending the at-last animated crowd home with a final spell of heartfelt appreciation.
