Live Review: King Parrot, Gay Paris

Gay Paris is immediately wild, loud, full of attitude and surprisingly heavy. The band's upbeat stoner rock style is infused with a seemingly unique attitude, and it quickly becomes clear that they just seem to make a whole lot more sense in the live setting as opposed to just listening to their albums alone. The Sydney group bombastically blast their way through songs taken largely from their latest album, The Last Good Party, jumping about while bucking their knees and commanding a curious audience's attention. Everything about it is super tight and slick while still feeling real – except perhaps for vocalist Luke Monks' American accent, but if you think of it as just part of the act it kind of makes sense.
King Parrot have been touring Australia very heavily for the last two years, and the level of confidence and tightness the band has reached is truly on display tonight. Vocalist Matthew Young flings water bottles all over the front rows, charges into the audience with his wireless microphone on multiple occasions, pushes kids around and just generally incites chaos. Guitarist Squiz strays from his usual reckless thrashing, having instead donned sunglasses and a little bucket hat under which he stares straight ahead with a blank face. Stoically riffing along, it would appear that he's making the best he can out of a spinal ailment, yet juxtaposed against the non-stop hyperactivity of the rest of his band his curious new style kind of works and brings a new vibe to their show. Following a set filled with comedy, mostly from bassist Slatts, the band save Shit On The Liver for last, where things reach a fever pitch and the audience invades the stage. No more than 15 seconds into the song and someone knocks the crazy talented Matt Skitz's bass drum out of place, and they have to start again. It's soon forgotten as the set reaches a triumphant conclusion.