Live Review: Amp Alive

The full shortlist for the Australian Music Prize (AMP) is being announced in the amp-le space of Federation Square. (Okay, that was terrible. No more puns.) Bob Evans, who is actually Kevin Mitchell, and Clare Bowditch, who is weirdly just Clare Bowditch, are hosting the event, announcing the nominees and handing out the coveted mini-AMPs to each finalist. The mini-AMPs (actual mini-amps), we are told by Mitchell/Evans, "possibly go up to eleven, but don't come with batteries", so I guess we'll never know the true extent of their power, since nobody bothers buying batteries any more.

Jess Ribeiro & The Bone Collectors' album My Little River is the first nominee announced, followed by hip hop outfit Daily Meds for their record Happy Daze. It's instantly clear that this year's AMP will be different to last year's, in that albums won't need to have already been a feature album on triple j to qualify for a shortlist position. Grand Salvo's album Slay Me In My Sleep gets a nod (they play a short set, about half of which consists of tuning up), then Tame Impala's nomination for Lonerism is announced to the surprise of absolutely no one. Bowditch and Mitchell/Evans invite Rohan Leppert, a City Of Melbourne Councillor, to the stage for a quick chat. He is wearing skinny jeans and Weezer eyewear and is clearly one of those guys who run for mayor at the age of 18 and then freak everyone out by winning.

Hermitude score a nomination for their runaway train of an album HyperParadise, and since most of the crowd have pretty much come down to check out their already-announced set, they get the place moving (sometimes in the direction of the square's scarce shelters, as the rain spits down). They're followed up by announcements for Liz Stringer's Warm In The Darkness and Flume's self-titled record before Urthboy takes the stage to celebrate his nomination for Smokey's Haunt. (Weird that over half the showcase performances come from Sydney-based hip hop acts. There's probably a conspiracy-theorist YouTube video about the issue posted somewhere.)

The final nominee announced is The Presets' album Pacifica, and then it's time for Bowditch and Mitchell/Evans to wrap things up with a reminder that the winner will be announced on Thursday 7 March. All up, the 2013 shortlist could be seen as a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the criticism of the homogeny of last year's list, but just think: this year's AMP winner might not be a sad, guitar-strummy indie-folk record with an experimental element. My, how far we've come.