Live Review: Client Liaison, Retiree, Wrooks

Like many of the finer enjoyments in life, the perfection that was the Client Liaison performance last night was cut short due to unforeseen events.

Wrooks, spinning the ones and twos, was a great opener to the night as the crowd steadily staggered in. He even treated the early arrivees to some Client Liaison remixes of his own.

By the time Retiree took the stage a sizable audience had gathered. They began with the track, Altruisme, which was impressively sung in French, leaving the crowd pondering whether the Sydney quartet were in fact tres chic and European. The synth masters really got the crowd going when they played Rain, a song that strongly channels Client Liaison and that was interestingly re-worked by Client Liaison and used, in part, in Free Of Fear.

Client Liaison’s entrance was grand as they exploded onto the stage with a bang, all flashing lights, smoke and their tune Feed The Rhythm. Going to a Client Liaison gig is not just about the music, it’s the ridiculously necessary retro stage props, the back-up dancers and of course their amazing shoulder-padded ‘80s get-up. A Client Liaison performance is truly an experience.

Client Liaison had been steadily working into their set when triple j’s Tom Tilley joined them on stage for Pretty Lovers. Everything was running smoothly in what was shaping up to be one of their best performances yet, when… the floor of the Oxford Art Factory was drenched as the fire sprinklers poured water on the crowd, causing  Client Liaison to halt their show. The tension and anticipation built as the crowd eagerly awaited Client Liaison to take them back to their ‘80s happy place where they’d been moments before. But the sadness set in as they were instead obliged to deliver the devastating news that it was unsafe to continue. The audience slowly flowed out of the venue, literally, back into this century, with heavy hearts and weighty, water-logged feet.