The Northcote Social Club was a sight to be seen last Saturday night for the EP launch of Melbourne band Northeast Party House; the crowd eagerly entered the venue looking like they had just survived the blast of a giant gold glitter bomb. Winners of this year’s Triple J Unearthed High, Snakadaktal, drew crowds in early to see if they would live up to the hype. The crowd was mesmerised by Snakadaktal, delivering their own brand of what they describe as dream pop so tightly that you’d struggle to believe they are a bunch of high school kids.
The crowd was swaying along in perfect time as they played single ‘Chimera’, which led into a completely unexpected but totally awesome cover of Swedish House Mafia’s ‘One (Your Name)’. This was a perfect end to the set, leaving crowds buzzing and ready for more boogieing.
Next up were Mildlife who had the crowd getting into the groove of their psychedelic calypso dance, when the set was unfortunately stopped due to a number of technical difficulties. Eventually they started up again, but it was obvious that the band was not very happy with the constant cutting out of sound and abruptly ended what could have been a great set. This did not discourage the crowd though, as the curtain was pulled over the stage they drew nearer in anticipation for the epic dance party that was sure to be coming.
As Northeast Party House opened with ‘Stand Tall’ and the curtain was being drawn back, the crowd was hooked before the stage covered with brightly coloured balloons was even fully visible. Two songs in, and people were crowd surfing left right and centre. The bands infectious brand of psychedelic dance rock had people jumping out of their skinny jeans for the entire set. At one point singer Zach Hamilton-Reeves told the crowd “let’s get rowdy, but not too rowdy” after one of the many crowd surfers fell backwards into the crowd. This did not stop the party though; song after song the smooth vocals and heavy dance beats had the glitter clad army of Northeast Party House followers on their feet.
After informing the crowd that this would be the last show for drummer Nick Lawrence in their hometown of Melbourne, the crowd kicked into even higher gear. As track ‘Dusk’ began the crowds sang along and swayed in time to the pops of alarm sounding synth. Then the dance party got a whole lot more epic when guitarist Jack Shoe let go of his guitar and joined Zach in an extended intro of wild screaming as they began the final song of the set, the first single off their EP with the same name ‘Embezzler’.
At this point the Northcote Social Club band room was transformed into the scene of a wild party, with the whole crowd jumping around in a haze of glitter, balloons and hectic beats. Northeast Party House brought the self described crack house furniture party that crowds expected, leaving not one person in the venue without a speck of glitter or sweat on their dancing shoes.
– Stef Miltiadou
