Live Review: Beaches, Songs, The Friendsters

The Friendsters kicked off the night with some bare-bones music, which is also a fitting physical description of the band, who looked like they collectively weighed about 60 kilos. Slightly off-kilter, it was a fun mix of shoegaze and surf rock.

Songs have built a steady and respected following since forming roughly four years ago. Their new album, a classic combination of Brit-pop cum sassy inner-west vibe has garnered praise from the likes of Rob Forster, and their set was a great demo of why they rock, despite three members of the band realising after the fact they were without their drummer (who turned up halfway through the song as though nothing had happened). The band didn't really skip a beat and their song, Boy/Girl, was a particular highlight, along with Ringing Bells, the feel-good hit of the 2013 winter.

Beaches were in Sydney to play the last of four east coast shows to promote their newest album release, She Beats. Popular amongst other artists and having impressed at the first All Tomorrows Parties event at Mt Buller and Cockatoo Island in 2009, the band, something of a supergroup comprising of members of bands like Spider Vomit and Love Of Diagrams, played a restrained set but looked to be enjoying testing their new tunes to a packed club, many of the crowd being on the 30-plus side. There was a definite throw to the '90s with the new stuff and the expressionless delivery for the latter half of the show sometimes felt like the same chord progression from the song before. Nonetheless, for all the cheering between songs, the real measure was the plentiful grooving and dancing going on during each song, complemented by the disdain for people intentionally and unintentionally blocking the small window of viewing space available. Hopefully the band will be back soon.