Live Review: The Delta Riggs, The Mornings, Lewes

Local lads LEWES are cranking their post-rock sound to a slow-building crowd, many of whom are still making their way up from dinner tables. On stage shirts are off and sweat dripping, the result of a band producing some intricate yet powerful sounds with plenty of attitude.

Next up are The Mornings, one of Hobart’s hardest-working bands, who constantly pop up and deliver a solid folk-rock performance. Their guitar, drums, bass, violin, mandolin and vocal formula isn’t breaking any conventions or blowing the roof off the joint, but nor is it supposed to. Their sounds wrap around your ears, you find your foot tapping and feel a little warm inside. You’d be silly to turn that down and the majority of the still slowly-building crowd embraces it.

The Delta Riggs’ entrance is foreshadowed as the walls become adorned with Mighty Boosh-esque masks given life in their recent The Record’s Flawed music video. As the crowd gathers there’s the sense many people are not fully aware what to expect from the headliners. This is their maiden Tasmanian show in support of their latest album, Dipz Zebazios, an offering that gives little away in both its pronunciation and the moustache, camel and rainbow that adorn its front cover.

This uncertainty doesn’t last long however, as the band opens with current triple j favourite and Dipz Zebazios opener, It’s Over. The crowd instantly finds its groove as frontman Elliott Hammond drapes himself over the microphone, projecting vocals that waver pleasingly between edgy rock and a slurred croon. He doesn’t stay slumped long though, somehow making the tiny stage a playground through which he moves with droves of energy and swagger, backed by a tight band.

The rest of the set doesn’t let up as we are treated to recent favourites Supersonic Casualties, Bobby’s Flowers and The Record’s Flawed. These are nicely nestled amongst older tracks like Rah Rah Radio, impromptu jams and unfinished stories about Freddie Mercury playing cards. With plenty of guitar, a Brit-pop aesthetic, microphone tricks and sweaty bodies it often feels like a typical rock gig. It’s a performance that brings to mind bands like Kasabian, Jet and The Hives; however there are also surprising moments when a different influence takes hold. The track No Friends hails one such moment, bringing to the fore the band’s more recent influences of The Roots and Outkast. For a moment, body movements change trajectory and begin to sway in unison to a hip hop sound that somehow maintains a rock sensibility.

The evening’s only let-down was perhaps the disappointing crowd numbers, meaning that despite the band giving 100%, the crowd never quite matched this energy completely. Despite this, those present were treated to a set and encore full of infectious energy and diverse sounds. During the gig Hammond had pointed over his shoulder and jokingly informed the audience that now they have a banner they were a real band – “Pretty fucking impressive, huh?” he’d said. This performance certainly was and while some of us may be no closer to pronouncing the album title, nor able to fully link the camel/moustache/rainbow imagery to the music, who really gives a rat’s. The Delta Riggs freaking killed it.