Live Review: City & Colour, Husky, Twin Forks

5 December 2013 | 8:48 am | Benny Doyle

Eventually, a four-song encore stretches the love-in out just a little longer, Death’s Song concluding an evening you wish wouldn’t end.

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When you enter a venue to the sounds of Talking Heads And She Was, you know there's a bit of magic floating through the evening air. Twin Forks are the culprits behind that '80s departure, the side project of Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba that combines Americana ideals with fun mandolin, courtesy Suzie Zelden, and a solid rhythm section. With hand-clapping singalong melodies and plenty of charisma, the whole vibe is akin to a church sermon in the Deep South, and Carrabba – a well-worked frontman – remains generous with his music and gracious in disposition.
Husky are flying the Australian flag tonight, and although the four-piece break out of the gates solidly – their voices are joined at the note and the music crackles like a campfire at night – they don't give enough performance value to hold the attention of a venue this size. Ears expectantly prick when they play the first single that introduced them to the world, History's Door, but under a shaggy mop and with minimal animation, main man Husky Gawenda seems distant, making it hard to connect.
Pick any song you'd expect City & Colour to walk out to and no question it wouldn't be Soul II Soul's Back To Life (However Do You Want Me). But it works – it sets a relaxed, carefree mood, allowing Dallas Green and his crack band to simply latch on to that feeling and massage it further for the next two hours. Wearing his now trademark wide-brim hat – pork pie or Panama, this reviewer's not sure – Green runs things back through the catalogue right from the beginning, playing new cuts, Of Space And Time and The Lonely Life, before airing The Grand Optimist, As Much As I Ever Could, with a big ripping outro, and Sam Malone, featuring a swagger unknown on his humble debut, Sometimes. It's the ideal opening – fans new and old, already everyone is happy.
With players like Jack Lawrence (The Greenhornes, The Dead Weather) by his side, Green is now embracing the idea of City & Colour as a band and exercising that freedom with songs from his entire canon. However, when the rest of the gents depart so the 33-year-old can deliver O' Sister, it feels like the entire city has fallen silent in an instant. Coming Home incites cheers from various Canuck pockets in the crowd when their locale is name-checked in the lyrics; Little Hell and Sleeping Sickness provide shivers, while later, Green enthuses us to get our dancing shoes on during Thirst. Eventually, a four-song encore stretches the love-in out just a little longer, Death's Song concluding an evening you wish wouldn't end.