It’s been a while since Australia’s favourite piano/guitar indie duo Big Scary have hit the road for a complete national headlining tour – a whole year, in fact.
Bringing along a few friends, including national opener Caitlin Park as well as a first time touring member on bass, the Melbourne natives supported their latest release ‘Phil Collins’ with single “Luck Now” through filling out intimate venues in each capital city.
From a quick flight down from Perth, it was Adelaide’s turn to host their tour on at Hindley street’s Jive bar – well known for its rowdy Saturdays.
Though the night started out mild with the majority of early attendees relaxing on the couches or the balcony’s stools, Adelaide’s own unorthodox poppers Swimming did a wonderful job in keeping the audience’s attention.
Having just returned from their own Australian tour, the heavenly trio gained immediate audience approval through their unique combination of vocal harmonies, thick bass, and a whole lot of reverb.
With a quick inter-performance break, the venue was filling up quite nicely. As Caitlin Park entered the stage, the crowd had significantly bulked up in the short half hour that had passed.
The self-proclaimed folktronica solo artist was full of surprises in her performance, having a blend of beautiful a capella songs, run of the mill acoustic ballads, and a penultimate track that held a wonderful blend of ambience and pedal work.
Big Scary drummer Jo Syme was seen on stage lending a hand on drums, only adding to the variety that Park had already showcased to the crowd.
As the room grew full of anticipation, the balcony turned from a casual viewing area into a hectic struggle to grab a good viewing spot, and almost every square foot of the stage area taken up by excited punters.
Big Scary entered to applause, opening with an unreleased, distorted rock song, followed by the piano-filled bliss that is “Autumn”.
Expressing their joy to be back in Adelaide, despite having visited just a month earlier opening for Mutemath, the duo reminisced about their previous headlining tour in April 2012.
Following this, they announced the next song to be a new one and had only been played live just three times before.
“Luck Now” was then performed to considerable favour, showing that the twosome made the right choice in choosing it to be the lead single from their upcoming album Not Art. Following this, the classic upbeat track “Mix Tape” was performed immediately after to spontaneous roars.
The majority of songs performed were performed with a touring bassist – something that both members Jo and Tom Iansek were pleased with having on board.
A fantastic variety of old and new songs, including “Bad Friends”, “Got It, Lost It”, “Leaving Home”, and “Phil Collins” – introduced as “a song about who we hope is currently a happy man,” – made up the middle of the set. Almost ten songs in, and Big Scary were still managing to hold the core of the audience’s attention.
No matter what banter singer Iansek manages to pull out during the set, it’s always as humble as ever. Whether he’s describing how surprised he always is to see attendees at a Big Scary show, how livable he sees Adelaide to be, or how appreciative he was of openers Swimming and Caitlin Park – the frontman expresses his words with a feel of modesty.
Therefore it was only natural to not expect an encore as the duo closed the night with fan favourites “Gladiator” and “Purple”, which both managed to bring a satisfying close to the night.
