Corner Hotel, Melbourne, Tuesday 8 December 2015
Performing his fourth Meredith Music Festival sideshow and first of two shows in Melbourne, Unknown Mortal Orchestra played the Corner Hotel on Tuesday night to a sell-out crowd, touring behind their excellent 2015 album Multi-Love.
Sydney’s Alex Cameron came on promptly as support at 8:30, cycling through songs from his 90s-indebted electro pop debut album Jumping The Shark. Backed up by his saxophone player and producing some so-awful-they’re great dance moves, songs such as ‘Happy Ending’, ‘Real Bad Lookin”, ‘The Comeback’, ‘She’s Mine’ and ‘Take Care of Business’ all got the crowd laughing and dancing in equal measures.
There’s no denying Cameron wasn’t a consummate showman, undertaking beer reviews and asking the crowd if they had any recommendations for massages in the area. He took time to ensure everyone knew his bandmate Roy Molloy had recently received Transdev’s Employee of the Year award for his services as a tram driver, as well as spruik their supposed business partnership ‘Crawfish’. It was all very dry and self-deprecating, not unlike a Client Liaison show.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra came on just after 9:30 after the audience was treated to plenty of funk and soul records to keep the mood going. The band, fronted by Ruban Nielson and backed by bassist Jake Portait, keyboardist Quincy McCrary and drummer Riley Geare, started with a few new songs as well as “From the Sun” off their 2013 album II.
‘How Can You Luv Me’ from their self-titled debut got the crowd moving more, bookended by a nice drum solo from Geare that merged smoothly into ‘Ur Life One Night’. The punkier ‘Thought Balloon’, followed by the newer, soul-tinged “The World Is Crowded” made for an interesting cross-album comparison.
Although it was a weeknight, by the time ‘Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)’ came around the crowd’s mood shifted up a gear, with one punter trying his luck crowd surfing over the first few rows. Nielson didn’t really seem to take all that much notice of the unruly audience – that is, until the very next song where the singer decided to crowd surf himself. Needless to say he looked supremely natural and at ease whilst doing so.
With Nielson’s popularity at an all-time high, he closed the main portion of the evening with two more of his most popular singles. ‘Ffunny Ffrends’ resulted in an ecstatic reaction from the crowd; the new, disco-tinged “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone” ensured the mood stayed jovial right until the very end. The latter, rather humorously, was perhaps one of the only songs of the night where you couldn’t observe anyone using their phone in the venue.
The band’s encore of ‘So Good at Being in Trouble’ and of course, ‘Multi-Love’ was very well received. The former, however, with its extended guitar outro that doubled the song’s length was a real treat; it made the rest of the set seem almost rigid in comparison.
A bit looser than on record, Ruban Nielson and his three-piece band were an absolute pleasure live. Although he surprised the world back in 2010 with his first single, over the course of five years he has steadily built up his following while releasing three consistent albums, gradually progressing his sound whilst staying true to what people enjoyed about his debut.
With a wide ranging and passionate audience packing out the Corner Hotel to enjoy his charming brand of R&B-tinged psychedelic rock, there was no better way to spend a Tuesday night.
