Live Review: City Calm Down, Lanark, Oakland

No doubt Jack Rabbit Slim's was going to be a popular destination on Saturday night; City Calm Down are proving themselves as one of the country's hottest acts at the moment and their performance that evening only cemented those credentials. First things first though, Oakland got the earlybirds grooving with their wonderfully catchy hooks, and pulled a flock of excited fangirls in the process. The cheeky cover of LCD Soundsystem's All My Friends received cheers of recognition as the intro bars came in, but the audience saved their biggest roar of the set 'til the end of the song, and deservedly so — it was a fantastic rendition, and so long as the young guns stick it out, they've got a really bright future ahead. On the other side of the coin, Lanark were a totally bizarre choice of band for the evening. While this scribe is a genuine fan of their work, they didn't seem to gel into the evening given the style of their predecessor and follower, and most of the crowd didn't seem to really get them. That said, there's a lot of substance behind their mostly instrumental work, and it was good to see people at the front giving them a go, regardless of the obvious shake up in style.

Straight from the outset, you couldn't help but shake your head and grin at City Calm Down, particularly vocalist Jack Bourke — never mind that his voice oozes Ian Curtis with his deep baritone vocals, he is essentially Simple Minds' Jim Kerr reincarnated up on stage, and that is so very much a good thing. As he tossed himself around the space with the mic held behind his back when he wasn't singing, bent over and ducking and dodging back and forth, what was in fact most impressive about the show was just how well his vocals stood up in a live setting — he nailed his low and higher ranges — and how much the group as a whole have nailed their sound. Tracks from their 2012 EP including Sense Of Self and Pleasure & Consequence were welcomed early, the former a poppier track, while the latter took things a little slower and allowed punters to enjoy some thumping bass lines and enticing synth work, such was the theme for most of the evening. New track Rabbit Run received the biggest reaction of the night and was huge in a live setting, while closer Dare sent the group out on a high, with a climactic ending of big high notes from Bourke, some purposeful drumming and quick-fire synth playing. The boys went above and beyond expectations in front of a mostly uninitiated crowd, and there's no question people will be getting right around the band's debut album when it is released next month — this reviewer, for one, cannot wait.