Live Review: City And Colour, Twin Forks, Husky

17 December 2013 | 2:23 pm | Ching Pei Khoo

Sublime song The Girl, a much loved ode with its two-speed tempo, is a lasting highlight to spirit us away into the night.

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Youths throng across the lawns as dusk descends and a springtime chill cloaks the air. Scores of fans sprawl blissfully on the grassy slopes and dozens ferry beer and chips. The atmosphere is charged and the excitement is palpable – particularly after audiences have been treated to the contemplative, dream-like sounds of local indie-folk band Husky, and the energetic, jig-inducing compositions of American folk-rock outfit Twin Forks.

When Dallas Green, aka City & Colour, emerges on the stark concrete and steel stage with an all male band ensemble, delirious cries easily overpower the shrill squawks of the seagulls swooping overhead. Without ceremony, the Canadian band launch straight into their tracks, sprinkling acoustic folk classics such as Comin' Home, Northern Wind and As Much As I Ever Could among the more edgy, rock-infused numbers from current album The Hurry And The Harm. Green, as lead vocalist and guitar player, is polished and seamless, and his well-picked band members – Matt Kelly (pedal steel/keys), Doug MacGregor (drums), Jack Lawrence (bass guitar) and Dante Schwebel (guitar) – are, as is to be expected, just as highly accomplished. 

It takes some time, but the laconic Green gradually warms to engaging with the audience as the show progresses. He later admits that he “still doesn't know what to do between songs onstage”, even after so many years touring. At one point, he asks everyone to put away their mobile phones and just immerse themselves for the next three minutes in Body In A Box with the refrain, “[Don't try] to remember it so badly that you forget to experience it.”

Many of City & Colour's songs – enshrined in the simple, heartfelt lyrics – speak of aching homesickness and a desire to be somewhere or with somebody else, a theme that Green concedes is a reflection of his own struggles to adapt to life on the road.

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“There's a curfew, so we're just going to keep playing,” he says after a truncated interval before the encore. Sublime song The Girl, a much loved ode with its two-speed tempo, is a lasting highlight to spirit us away into the night.