Off the back of a three year break, Something With Numbers’ gig at the Oxford Art Factory on Saturday night was exactly the tonic that their dedicated fans needed.
The first act of the night, Born Lion, got the night off to a high-energy start.
The Sydney rock outfit presented a set built around driving riffs and strong vocals, however as the vocals began to tire, so did the performance
They weren’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but their lack of interaction with the small crowd, and the similarity of all their songs left a bit to be desired.
Second support act Louis London took the night in a different direction.
Starting out with a bright indie rock feel, the set soon showcased the mellow sound, strong bass lines, and incredible vocals present in their debut EP, On Your Lips We Roared.
The main highlight of the set was ‘Old L.A.’, which would not have been out of place on a Vampire Weekend album.
Though some of Louis London’s songs dragged on a bit, the strength of the vocals, as well as the relaxed feel of the songs meant that the small crowd didn’t mind too much.
When it was finally time for Something With Numbers to take the stage, the excitement around the small venue was electric.
Kicking the set off with ‘Chase The Chaser’, from their 2006 release Perfect Distraction, the bar was set quite high, and they would continue to perform at the same level throughout the evening.
Drummer Lachlan West gave a strong and very precise performance, which was highlighted by the simple, but very effective lighting changes that mirrored his beats.
As they moved on to ‘We Kill The Weekend’, the lead single from their new album Eleven Eleven, which lead singer Jake Griggs openly wondered if anyone had bought, the powerful guitar work of Tim Crawford and Trent Crocker was highlighted through driving riffs and expert solos.
As they worked through their set of both old favourites and new material, Griggs dedicated a number of songs to a few of the band’s long term fans, and the crowd interaction did not end there.
At various points throughout the show, Griggs hit on a member of the audience, accepted various drinks from the people in the front row, showed off his impersonation of Sting, and at one point, got down from the stage to intervene in a scuffle that broke out.
Rattling off crowd favourites ‘Apple Of The Eye (Lay Me Down)’ and ‘Goodbye Mickey Finn’ in quick succession, The Numbers had the dedicated crowd singing their hardest, which continued into ‘Touch The Moon’, the latter of which demonstrated the band’s chemistry and timing.
The inclusion of ‘Zombie’, another track from Perfect Distraction, really demonstrated the strength of Scott Champman’s bass playing, with its heavily bass melody, complimented by Griggs’ high pitched, wailing vocals.
Despite their extensive catalogue of originals, The Numbers managed to work in a fun mash-up, combining Kings of Leon’s ‘Sex On Fire’, with Cypress Hill’s ‘Hits From The Bong’, as they had previously on Triple J’s Like A Version.
Finishing with ‘Stay With Me Bright Eyes’, the band more than satisfied the crowd, who seemed less like concertgoers, and more like a group of people catching up with an old friend.
Though their performance was far from professional, it was incredibly entertaining, and exactly what the diehard fans were looking for.
Griggs’ drunken banter with the crowd, punctuated by the occasional joke at his expense by the other band members, had the crowd in stitches, while the obvious lack of organisation in their set, and Griggs’ all too frequent forgetting of lyrics and which chords he was meant to play only served to endear Something With Numbers to their fans.
But when they got it right, boy did they get it right.
