Live Review: Bored Nothing

With the new year well and truly kicked over, things are crawling back to the reg on the Brisbane music circuit and tonight sees Sydney-based indie hype fodder Bored Nothing take over Black Bear Lodge for a free show, making the Lodge the hottest place to be in town (literally) with the room packed to the walls with eager young sweaty faces.

With no support bands – apart from the ironically named DJ Cool Dog – it seems a tad odd seeing Fergus Miller and co. raising their guitars so late. Still, the crowd are loving it from the get-go, instantly identifying with the group's live dynamic. With the band having a slew of '90s indie rock influences on record, live it's mainly nailed down to the pop side of Built to Spill (Darcy) coupled with Elliot Smith sensibilities (Get Out Of Here) as Miller sings predominately in the higher register but still having a guitar-based edge.

Things musically deviate little away from the structure and sound of the recordings, which, for the most part works for the group, with the epic conclusion of Popcorn feeding emotional mosh work while Shit For Brains brings it back to summertime slacker. The band at times file on and off stage as required by Miller and while this keeps things slightly more intriguing, the sound at times doesn't stand as strong without the complete package.

Miller is most definitely the leader of the group and the rest of the band feel as if they were plucked randomly from completely different scenes, with the guitarist looking like he'd be more comfortable pumping iron with the boys at Fitness First and the keyboardist looking as if she'd prefer to be at home with a Sex And The City box set. Still, the overall Bored Nothing machine shows tonight that it has a decent amount of potential to move forward onto bigger things with a little fine tuning.