Live Review: Beach Fossils, TV Colours, Major Leagues

Although initially plagued by technical hiccups (malfunctioning effects pedals), Major Leagues have officially stepped up to the big league. The almost-all-girl band from Brisbane have spent the last month opening for some of the country's best, including The Preatures and The Holidays, and have now found themselves a new fan base in the The Standard's Friday night revellers. Despite the lack of distortion, they played a tight indie pop set, full of thrashing solos. They would often skew into Best Coast-style surf rock territory with tracks such as Silver Tides, and finished off kneeling on the stage completely focused on their guitars. 

But TV Colours seemed like an incongruous choice. The Canberra locals played pop-punk that changed the mood, strangely providing a quick insight into what would come next. They played without enthusiasm and made little effort to engage the crowd, instead spending half an hour shouting and playing the same three chords over and over. Yawn. 

Beach Fossils have finally landed in Australia, having previously cancelled their 2012 Australian tour. They performed with gusto, speeding up their dream pop so it became more like catchy surf punk. It was a pared-back set, just the band: Dustin Payseur, Tommy Gardner, Jack Doyle Smith and Tommy Davidson, their instruments, and more than a little distortion. They opened with Calyer, from EP What A Pleasure, which had fans from the early days shaking in time with the beat. The energy only built as the set went on, with Payseur breaking a string and borrowing a guitar from one of the supports. They played a mixture of young and old songs, including Birthday and Burn You Down from this year's Clash The Truth, and Daydream from their self-titled debut.

They have a refreshing way of interacting with the crowd and with each other, beginning the set with “Let's get fucking sexy”, and later stopping to thank Beach Fossils and asking the security guard to let people up on stage to “fuck me up and punch me in the face”. The crowd did not take Payseur up on that offer, but did jump on stage and take selfies or dance, give him beer and fist-bumps, or just used the stage as a launching pad for a crowd-surf, while the rest of the crowd moshed. Beach Fossils even banter with each other and fight with their guitars while they play.

The encore included Crashed Out and Twelve Roses, a fan-favourite. Payseur ended the night with his own personal existential crisis, mumbling for the last couple minutes about not knowing who or where he was or where he was going, expanding a three-minute track into a ten-minute multi-layered epic.