For a Southsider, there is always an element of expectation and high hopes that the gigantic trek out to the Northcote Social Club is worth the time, money and effort.
Luckily enough, The Cairos gig last Saturday night ended up being worth the struggle.
The first band of the night, Les Garcons, was your typical Melbourne preppy indie rock band. While they didn’t seem to have much new to offer their genre, they played with quiet assurance and skilfulness. Nick Geronimo’s vocals were smooth and created a sense of emotion to their sound, with the highlight of their set being a cover of The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” combined with The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”.
Sydneysiders, The Preachers were up next. Successfully unifying pop, indie and blues, the band’s two front-runners, Isabella Manfredi and Gideon Bensen, flowed well together on stage, quirkily sharing the vocal responsibilities. This was particularly impressive as Benson had fallen ill with some kind of flu and barely wanted to be out of bed, let alone be on stage.
The audience, however, were divided on their performance – King Cannons frontman Luke Yeoward however, couldn’t say a bad word after their set, and cheerfully revealed that he sees the band going far with their unique, dexterous sound. While others in the crowd noted their talent, they unhappily felt that the band came with a sour, pretentious attitude – the conflict of the two left this portion of the audience feeling awkward and quite frankly, disappointed.
This bad taste in the mouth was all but lost the second The Cairos stepped on stage, and with lead singer, Ali Richardson’s goofy “well hullo there” the band leaped into their hit, “Lena”.
The Queenslanders play their music as it sounds – both in the sense that there is little disparity when they play live and their new EP Colours Like Features; their happy, jovial tunes translating well in their onstage presence.
After “Lena” Richardson announced that it was guitarist Alfio Alivuzza’s birthday and gushed, “the next song’s for him, because I love him.” Which of course got a massive, mushy “nawwwwwww” from the crowd.
“Self Control” was played shortly after and it burned a big gaping emotional hole in just about every punter’s soul with its heartfelt and sincere delivery. With lyrics like “and I will be the one man who never lets you down/ stop you in your tracks and make you turn around”, there wasn’t a girl (or man, for that matter) in the room who didn’t instantly fall in love with every member of the band
From there the lads ripped the crowd out of its love filled state with a heaver song that had Richardson screaming: “Help is on the way!” Later on, Richardson announced that Buddy Franklin had given him a Hawthorn Football Club jersey earlier that day. He then pulled his cousin on stage to help sing the next song, and wrestled the jumper on the unsuspecting fella; before belting out “Shame”. By the end of the track the crowd had joined Richardson’s cousin and pulled a microphone from the stage and screamed the lyrics down it.
By the end of the set, The Preachers made it back on stage to help sing both a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time after Time” and The Cairos’ famed song, “We All Buy Stars.” The collision of the two bands was both a celebration of their long tour together, and a crazy, excited fusion spewing excitement throughout the room.
The Cairos now need to march onward from the success of their EP tour and buckle down to finish an album that will fulfil the high standards they’ve set themselves.
– Tara Emily
