Live Review: Catfish & The Bottlemen, Fyre Byrd

Adelaide brother/sister rock duo Fyre Byrd turn up the temperature and set the stage ablaze with their hard-hitting drumming and thrashing electric guitars. These siblings are completely in-tune with each other as they unleash an animalistic, grungy sound with high energy and electrifying instrumentals to get the crowd amped up. They command the stage with a strong presence as singer-guitarist Josh Samtre removes his white-rimmed sunnies and gets down on one knee to encourage a singalong. “I wanna feel good,” he shouts, and it doesn’t take long for it to catch on. The groovy and uplifting beat gets us bopping along despite not having heard it before.

The artwork on Catfish & The Bottlemen’s latest album, a toucan perched on a can and drinking through a straw, serves as a playful neon backdrop on the stage. “Ladies and gentleman, we are now live,” sounds a voiceover as the band enters to a recording of Helter Skelter by The Beatles, before launching into Longshot. 

They set the tone early with vintage indie-rock vibes. Frontman Van McCann is an incredible showman, throwing himself around the stage with a phenomenal amount of energy and giving passionate introductions that make every track feel like an encore. He climbs on top of speakers, swings his guitar around his waist and pulls his microphone in close to his chest to sing the huge romantic-rock choruses.

Catfish & The Bottlemen. Photos by Andrew Briscoe.

The band indulge the audience with a wide selection of tracks from across their three albums. They foster an incredible atmosphere and the mosh-pit comes alive, so much so that many seated audience members risk life and limb to jump the railings or attempt to sneak past security and join general admission. Catfish & The Bottlemen’s sound is spotless live, with solid vocals, thrilling guitar riffs and enough catchy hooks to power their confident and polished performance. A very long-winded instrumental during Business draws a short lull, but they pick the pace right back up with Pacifier - the mosh-pit bouncing along to the contagious anthem. 

For the people a little further back in the seats, the one thing that was noticeably missing was any crowd engagement beyond a song announcement, a "thank you" or a "how are you doing Melbourne?”. The crowd starts singing Cocoon before it’s even time for it. “You’ll have to wait for that one,” McCann teases before continuing with Fluctuate. They inevitably save the fan favourite till the end and McCann steps away from the microphone after the first verse so the audience can sing the rest of the track back at him before a final intimate and acoustic chorus. Tyrants signals the end of the show and a circle-pit starts up on the floor, punters crashing into each other for an explosive finish.

Catfish & The Bottlemen. Photos by Andrew Briscoe.