An adoring crowd shuffled their way into the Toff, eager to hear the High Highs play a rare Melbourne show.
The Sydney-turned-Brooklyn three-piece generated all kinds of buzz on the back of their eponymous debut EP; with international press like Pitchfork, NME and The Guardian all declaring the High Highs as a band to watch.
Having just released their debut album, Open Season the other week, and in Australia as part of the Laneway Festival, the Brooklyn band are going from strength to strength.
One could be forgiven for thinking this debut East Coast Australian tour is the first and last time the High Highs appear before fans in smaller, more intimate venues.
City Calm Down, another band attracting a bit of buzz on the blogosphere, opened up proceedings. Equal parts new wave and dancy electronica, the Melbourne four-piece commanded the crowd’s attention from the outset.
Lead vocalist Jack Bourke’s performance is a highlight; his voice familiar and polished yet has a haunting, even eerie quality. Bourke and his bandmates attack the set with vigour and such is their versatility that they are difficult to pigeonhole into a single genre.
Triple J favourites “Sense of Self” and “Dare” all elicit great responses from the audience, as does a blaring burst of saxophone from multi-talented synth man Sam Mullaly during “Pleasure and Consequence”.
The polished and multi-dimensional nature of City Calm Down’s set indicates they’re very much a band to keep an eye on.
The High Highs take the stage to hearty applause and launch into a set that predominately consists of material from Open Season.
With microphones wrapped in fairy lights, the High Highs’ pitch perfect live sound and intoxicating mix of minimalist electronica and hauntingly beautiful folk/pop melodies captures the audience, but doesn’t quite take it to the next level.
They rely on their lush, warm melodies and endearing awkwardness to hook the audience in rather than jamming themselves silly.
Combined with frontman Jack Milas’ penchant for silence rather than banter between songs means there is a slight disconnect between the band and the spectators.
This lack of presence doesn’t mean that the crowd was left shortchanged however.
The emotion poured out of keyboardist Oli Chang during the more heartfelt moments showed that this is a group that really felt their music. A quirky cover of “A Real Hero” from the Drive soundtrack likewise surprised and impressed punters. But these ‘wow’ moments don’t occur often enough.
Despite the fantastic sound quality, tracks occasionally seem to blend into each other.
It’s unclear whether this is a reflection on the content of the album itself, the composition of the set, or a lack of presence and chatter between songs; maybe a combination of all three.
Crowd favourites “Horses” and the set closing title track ‘Open Season’ are typically beautiful but the punter walks away with the niggling feeling that something was missing from the High Highs’ first Australian set.
With a bit more confidence and a few more shows under the belt, the High Highs certainly have the potential to deliver the killer blow – to thrill and astonish an audience from start to finish. And you wouldn’t want to miss it when they do.
