Live Review: Dorsal Fins, Main Beach, Robert Muinos

The soulful Robert Muinos and his three band members set off the night at the Newtown Social Club. Muinos, who is a member of both Dorsal Fins and Saskwatch has recently released his debut solo EP You’re Not Alone, producing music that is of a completely dissimilar genre to either of those two bands. The audience were emotionally moved by the honest songs Muinos delivered. Hearts were shattered as Muinos sung the soft vocals to Hold You Up, but everyone lightened up as he finished with I Was Dreaming.

Main Beach kicked off their set with Down By The Wall which gave the audience one last taste of summer. The Surry Hills-based four-piece delivered easy-listening tunes that helped us relive the pure joy of surfer garage-rock. Even the cliché-titled song Under The Surf Club Lights went down swimmingly and got the crowd rocking and rolling along.

In a stampede-like fashion, Dorsal Fins rampaged onto the stage with Spybreak! (that song from The Matrix lobby scene) playing in the background. This band can crowd a stage with up to 15 members at a time, though only a modest eight-piece graced the stage at their show on Friday night. In the first half of their performance Dorsal Fins played the misty sounds of Fell to the swaying to and fro of a mesmerised audience. Guest performer Jim Lawrie jumped up on stage and led the vocals in Cut The Wire, a song that sounded totally different – yet still awesome – to Dorsal Fins’ usual stuff. The well delivered cover of Kate Ceberano’s Pash Me was one of the high points as everyone danced and sang along, indulging in the guilty pop pleasure of the ‘90s. Mind Renovation, the newly launched album title track, showed the crowd the very best of indie-pop, brass-infused funk. Those who saw Dorsal Fins dolphinately had a whale of a time!