Live Review: British India, Magic Bones, Horror My Friend

Adelaide’s favourite venue, The Gov, had a busy week hosting some seriously good acts and last night was no exception. The night was full of so much Australian rock goodness from start to finish.

Local Adelaide dudes Horror My Friend were the first support of the night. Their set included a Nickelback shirt, an eager crowd and some damn good tunes. A lot of punters arrived early to catch their set and they killed it.

Magic Bones were up next, and as the place filled up even more the Melbourne natives provided an epic build up for the main act with their punk-rock tunes.

After spending a significant amount of time overseas recording their forthcoming album and just last week supporting none other than The Rolling Stones, British India absolutely brought the house down with their indie rock tunes. There were a couple of sound issues to begin with but the punters weren’t phased at all as within the first few songs people were already dancing on stage, crowd-surfing and flinging their shoes across the room.

The packed-out room was screaming along to favourites Plastic Souvenirs and Summer Forgive Me from last year’s album, Controller. Frontman Declan Melia was stoked with the crowd’s energy and involvement and that only increased when they belted out their latest single, Wrong Direction. With a little teaser of a song from their new album and hits Tie Up My Hands and God Is Dead (Meet The Kids), they proved why they’ve continued to be such a bloody good live band.

In a tribute to his ‘best mate’, Melia led the crowd in a singalong of Happy Birthday to the band’s guitarist Nic Wilson. They followed that with foot-stomper I Said I’m Sorry and the highlight of the night, I Can Make You Love Me. There wasn’t a person in the room not singing along to the gut-wrenching chorus.

After a brief exit, they returned to the stage for their final two songs. The punters went insane and there were limbs everywhere while everyone belted out the words to The Beastie Boys classic, Fight For Your Right (To Party). Of course, there’s one in every crowd and some moron thought he could steal the microphone to sing along. Thankfully, the punters booed him off stage and British India finished their incredible set with crowd favourite This Aint No Fucking Disco before declaring they would be back next year with their new record. If this performance is anything to go by, it’s definitely something to look forward to.