Local four-piece British India are certainly no strangers to Melbourne’s Corner Hotel. The band usually play at the venue several times a year, and given the familiarity with the Richmond band room, they have an innate ability to make a sold out Corner feel intimate.
With a capacity of 900, the indie-rock outfit know how to make both the sweaty writhing “moshers” up the front and the older people up the back near the sound desk feel involved.
On a cold Saturday night in Melbourne, Horror My Friend from Adelaide along with The Red Lights supported the headliners, both putting on well-received sets.
Once the famous red curtains opened, the unassuming Melbourne lads walked on stage to a reaction usually only reserved for huge international acts. They wasted little time before launching into fan favourite ‘March Into The Ocean’. It’s always a popular live track, given the song was only ever released as a free download in the years between their third and fourth album, and more recently as a B-side to ‘I Can Make You Love Me’.
The show continued the band’s recent history of playing more songs off their first two albums. Given how loyal their fanbase is, nearly everyone in attendance knew all the tracks. Guillotine offerings, such as ‘Russian Roulette’, ‘Tie Up My Hands’, and classic sing-along favourite ‘Run The Red Light’ were all received with ample cheers and audience participation.
Underrated album, perhaps even by the band themselves, is Thieves – an LP that got a good look in during their set. Four tracks including the anthemic ‘I Said I’m Sorry’, ‘God Is Dead, Meet The Kids’ as well as rarely heard tracks in a live setting, ‘You Will Die And I Will Take Over’ and ‘This Dance Is Loaded’ were featured.
The thoroughly enthusiastic reception for these deeper cuts demonstrated that most in attendance weren’t simply people who have a “Best of British India” playlist on their computer. Instead, the fans appreciated the albums in full. As their catalogue is so solid and well respected, this allows the band to have some flexibility to mix up and change their setlists.
Even a song from the Thieves sessions that never made the final record, ‘Sunny Dune’, got a berth. From its catchy chorus, it was hard to see why they couldn’t squeeze 11 tracks instead of 10 onto that disc.
A lot of Controller was featured throughout the set, and given the success it’s had as their first label release, the songs got a similarly positive crowd reaction. Five tracks were offered, as well as a new song ‘Wrong Direction’, that could be on album number five.
The audience sang in all the right places during the popular track, ‘I Can Make You Love Me’, the penultimate number of the evening. Playing a solid 19 songs, they didn’t need an encore, and instead finished with ‘Black And White Radio’, the start of the hit masqueraded by the live-only song, ‘This Ain’t No Fucking Disco’.
The gig only emphasised their position as the best live band in the country, as well as one of the hardest working. While, at times, parts of songs didn’t sound exactly as they do on record, the band performed with enthusiastic energy; seeing them live lifts their music up a notch. You could see British India live once a week and be hard pressed not to enjoy every single performance.
Setlist
March Into The Ocean
Russian Roulette
This Dance Is Loaded
Safari
Plastic Souvenirs
Blinded
You Will Die And I Will Take Over
Wrong Direction (new song)
Tie Up My Hands
Run the Red Light
Sunny Dune (unreleased song from the Thieves sessions)
God Is Dead, Meet The Kids
Christmas In The Trenches
Summer Forgive Me
Council Flat
Vanilla
I Said I’m Sorry
I Can Make You Love Me
This Ain’t No Fucking Disco/Black And White Radio
