Live Review: The Rubens, Mansionair

Having been kicking around triple j and support slots for a while now, Mansionair know how to handle themselves on stage - well, except for the red wine incident. Heavenly vocals and exquisite musicianship from the boys produced a soulful set, concluding with gem Hold Me Down. 

In addition to the rap music Hordern Pavilion provided us for intermission music, The Rubens chose another grimy track to enter to, before aptly launching into The Night Is My Side. Spirits were high across band and audience alike, and nothing was going to hold them back as they played what they described, as one of their biggest and boldest shows.

Their set was polished, and they played with the upmost showmanship (we’re willing to disregard that awful Hello cover), but still kept us on our toes throughout. They shook up their groovy rock tunes mid-set with an appearance from Seth Sentry during My Gun, whose rhymes went down a treat, following it up with an acoustic duet between frontman Sam Margin ands support act Ali Barter.

Taking it back to where it all began with Lay It Down, Margin told the story of their first play on triple j, before thanking us for making them unlikely winners of the Hottest 100 with Hoops.

Margin crowdsurfed in a boat through banger Cut Me Loose, as brother Elliot Margin jazzed up the vocals. An encore was called for and received, slowing it down with Never Be The Same, and taking it straight back to party mode with the supports coming on stage for a boogey during Hallelujah.