While often maligned by its youth as a sleepy town, with this past Friday night seeing The Vines hit The Gov, an enthused crowd demonstrated that Adelaide in fact does actually have balls. Instances of repeated forays on to the stage and crowd surfing had lead singer Craig Nicholls pleading half-heartedly for everyone to try and behave themselves just a little bit more
The crowd had been well warmed up by the two previous acts, which have been travelling around the country accompanying The Vines’ tour: Bleeding Knees Club and Papa vs Pretty. The latter, a charmingly shaggy-haired trio from NSW, are one to look out for, arguably managing to outshine the headliners. No time wasted, the lads began their set with impressive gusto that, even more impressively, lasted throughout.
Coming after this display of intensity, The Vines came out a little flat by comparison. It felt as though they were riding on their fame – relying on the fact that, having built up a fan base over the past years, it was not necessary to woo the audience so much as merely play to them. And while the adoring audience did not seem to notice, it is nevertheless a little disappointing when it appears that a band feels it no longer has to push itself.
Nicholls’ tremolo added a welcome complexity to a repertoire that otherwise consisted of fairly generic, if sometimes catchy, garage/alt rock. The rest of the band, a forgettable drummer and a second guitarist and bass player who appeared to be in a competition to see who could dress more like the other, did little to spice things up. Considering the energy of the songs, this was not what the performance was calling for.
This made no difference to the crowd however. And while the warnings to tone it down did eventually have some effect, come the encore (three songs, including a sweet little acoustic solo number), it was business as usual for the stage security.
By the final minute or so of the gig, that boisterous crowd (which was, at this point, thanked for being the most enthusiastic of the tour thus far) was given fair excuse for it own antics, when the smashing of the instruments began. One broken guitar and a drum kit in disarray later, and it was all over.
– Serrin Prior
