Walking through the doors of the Forum on Monday night the vibe was surprisingly relaxed. As one guy said: “It’s going off” (sensing just a hint of sarcasm there). It was 8:30pm and as Canadian pop punk group These Kids Wear Crowns made their way to the stage the small, but enthusiastic crowd jumped to their feet and ran to the front. Front man Alexander bounced around the stage while guitarist Joshua (better known as Gypsy) showed off his impressive talent of spitting high in the air and catching it in his mouth.
The sound in the beginning was a bit off so it was a struggle to actually hear Alex’s vocals until about half way through when they cranked out a cover of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.” Despite “Jumpstart” (which they informed us has now gone double platinum) being their only single in Australia, the crowd seemed to know and love this group for more than a reference in a Drake song.
As we waited for Forever The Sickest Kids to come on the crowd didn’t seem to get any bigger, which was suprising as we were only one act away from the headliners of the night. If anything though this made the crowd a lot more energetic as they were able to get up close and personal with the bands, without being crushed in a sea of bright coloured hair, drop dead clothing and septum piercings.
In true pop punk style Forever The Sickest Kids came out in full force, with front man Jonathan hitting all the high notes (something that you rarely see in pop punk outfits). Something in the air was making the bands particularly chatty on this rainy Monday night, the guys spent about 15 minutes mid-set chatting to members of the crowd, performing magic tricks and comparing Temple Run scores.
The small crowd was spread out having a boogie, which the band seemed to like with Jonathan saying, “I’d normally tell you all to come forward, but it’s really cool being able to come half way across the world and play such an intimate show”. It was a fun and relaxed vibe; everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves as the band played old favourites “Hey Brittany” and “She Likes”, also stumbling their way through a verse of “Lose Yourself” by Eminem.
The highlight was definitely at the end of the set when the band invited the crowd on stage to dance with them for “She’s A Lady”, they even handpicked people from the crowd and handed over the microphone to some extremely excitable (and dare I say wasted) dudes to help out guitarist Caleb with vocals.
The crowd had grown only a little as the lights dimmed and they got to their feet for the last time running to the stage for headliners Cobra Starship, who opened the set with “The City is at War” off their second album ¡Viva la Cobra! . After a mash up of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and their own “Hot Mess” front man Gabe Saporta told the crowd that he thought it was pretty “fucked” that they had booked a last minute show a week before they were meant to play Soundwave and he really wasn’t keen to play it.
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In the end though the band said they were really happy they got to play a smaller show because they got to play some of their older songs like “The Scene is Dead” and “Pleasure Ryland,” something the crowd of loyal followers also seemed to enjoy. The crowd was also lucky enough to catch bassist Alex Suarez giving us what the band assured us was an unusual display of stand up comedy/story telling. They even changed up the set list to play songs that the crowd requested, one of which was the Latino inspired “Smile For The Paparazzi” which somehow led to Gabe showing us how to grind with a little help from keytarist Victoria. After a fake encore, where the crowd pretended the band left the stage, the band ended the set with their own remix of Duck Sauce’s “Barbra Streisand” where they had replaced the vocals with “Cobra Starship” then going into the song that has made them break into the Australian charts, “You Make me Feel”.
Whether it was due to a lack of ticket sales, or purposely only selling a small amount of tickets it seemed to work in the favour of this show. Fans got an up close and personal experience with all of the bands, it felt more like a big group of friends hanging out and having a laugh as opposed to a crowd watching a band. A highly entertaining and intimate gig that unfortunately we don’t get to experience all that often.
– Stef Miltiadou
NB: for all of you fans of the late, great The Academy Is… drummer Andy “The Butcher” is now touring with Cobra Starship playing percussion.
