With a portion of Melbourne’s Corner Hotel sectioned off to accommodate a smaller than expected crowd Conor O’Brien’s first full band headline show with his “village people” in Australia would be an intimate affair.
Not quite as intimate as the previous two-piece tours in support of his 2010 Mercy Prize nominated debut, Becoming A Jackal, but low key to the point that this small yet dedicated audience wouldn’t have to fight to see the five-piece like crowds so often do when this venue sells out.
Local avant-garde guitar slacker Courtney Barnett and her solo presence would at least sound intimate in comparison to the upcoming Villagers performance.
Barnett is rigid yet oddly charming. The Daria of Australian music if you will. The singer’s lack of expression and unhinged vocals are ‘cool’ simply because what surrounds her presence is an air that speaks “I don’t give a fuck” on multiple levels.
But countering what is seemingly a lack of emotion in her stage presence is Barnett’s candid lyricism. Her story telling throughout the support slot covered everything from masturbation to death. With a new EP on the way it’s not hard to anticipate just what the musician will rhyme and write about.
Opening with ‘Memoir’ the pale faced Irishman brought out only his keys player initially to greet the crowd. The track, written originally for Charlottes Gainsburg, between his debut and this year’s {Awayland} typified the well-known sentiment of a sideshow easily trumping a festival set.
The track also demonstrated why Villagers’ Splendour In The Grass sideshow exceeded any expectations of just exactly what the five-piece would offer up. The fact they would put on a quality show wasn’t so much as surprising as their willingness to play beyond the hour mark when most international acts with a fan base of this size would play a routine set under an hour long and with a complimentary two song encore added in for good measure.
However O’Brien and his band transcended that dull trend and in fact their very own two album discography. As the harmonies of ‘My Lighthouse’ echoed across the venue Villagers sounded as close to the their sophomore record as you possibly could.
As the set continued the five-piece adapted the recordings to a live environment and their efforts would inevitably not only reveal a new side to the songs but they would also surpass their original form.
While the electric dalliance of {Awayland} was toned down for this live setting, with only the throbbing pulse of ‘The Waves’ truly showing O’Brien’s experimentation on the second record, its sonic expansion in comparison to Becoming A Jackal made a far greater impact.
More apparent though was the difference in vocal confidence. O’Brien would hit notes and falsettos that were just as beautiful, but ultimately far more impressive than on the live renditions of his early work
Not that the title track from his debut didn’t get some sing-a-long love, as you would expect from a song that led to the artists discovery.
Returning to the stage solo for the encore O’Brien, while having some difficulty tuning his guitar, that was abandoned mid ‘Earthly Pleasures’ for this very reason, found himself pleasing his countrymen within the audience through a performance of the fast paced Irish anthem ‘Rocky Road To Dublin’. Although the unplanned performance ended in a round of expletives before the singer successfully pulled it off on the second take.
That off the cuff rendition and his audience banter, which included a discussion about the meaning of the word “bogan”, displayed a far more casual side to the musician who moments before had been single-mindedly professional and energetic in his stage presence.
Closing with ‘Twenty Seven Strangers’ the lead singer promised to be back “very soon”. The inclusion of the word ‘very’ might be a hopeful sign that they’ll be back for our summer festival season.
Regardless of when their next visit will be, as Villagers reached the climax of ‘Nothing Arrived’, a song described by some as an atheist’s anthem, it was evident that the five-piece had reached a level of being both stunning and intense in their live exploits.
On this occasion O’Brien couldn’t have been more wrong when he sang “I guess I was busy, when nothing arrived”. For this audience Villagers appearance in Melbourne would provide a sideshow that was in line with the best of this Splendour sideshow season.
Setlist:
Memoir
My Lighthouse
Passing A Message
Set The Tigers Free
Grateful Song
The Pact
Home
Nothing Arrived
The Bell
Becoming A Jackal
The Wave
Judgement Call
Earthly Pleasure
Ship Of Promises
Encore:
Rocky Road To Dublin
That Day
Meaning Of The Ritual
27 Strangers
