Live Review: Loon Lake, Glass Towers, Cub Scouts

Cub Scouts have improved in leaps and bounds since this reviewer last caught them. Rather than empty, vacuous pop tunes, this set seemed to have some genuine emotion in it. Cub Scouts have a collection of new tracks that seem to have significantly more emotion and strength behind them. Unlike other shows they've played, this time the band — particularly frontman Tim Nelson — seemed to be genuinely thrilling in performing, which added to their performance. With gorgeous, well-orchestrated boy-girl harmonies and indulgent indie-pop keys, this band are irresistible for any pop junkie, and many in the audience were disappointed by the set being cut short by Nelson progressively losing his voice.

Glass Towers kicked off their set in a dramatic fashion — with a rapid-fire drumbeat and flashing strobes going off before the intro had begun. The band has a tight, indie rock arrangement, featuring gorgeous and warm bass lines. Because of the rhythm-driven nature of the tracks and the poor sound engineering going on, the band's vocals were largely indistinguishable for the set's first few tracks. Their set was energetic, with the hall marks of indie rock — jumping, nodding and sweating. Though the band are neat and tight, they have a tendency to predictability; whilst tracks like Gloom and Jimunji were really enjoyable, others seemed quite formulaic.

In true Loon Lake fashion, the Wollongong stop of their Thirty Three tour was straight-up, no-bullshit indie rock, with a rough, rootsy edge. The crowd seemed to swell and, after two sets of people mostly sitting down, seeing the whole crowd surge forward to make a kind of mosh was interesting. Again, it seemed to take a few songs for the venue's sound crew to adjust the band's vocals to an audible level, but once they did, the band sounded incredible, with upbeat, melody-driven tracks like Into The Office getting everyone dancing. This band is a study in good stage banter; with a casual demeanour and a gravelly smoker's voice, frontman Sam told off girls texting in the front row, gave a loud appraisal of surf conditions — “We got here just in time for a surf, and it was about half a foot...fucking sick.” — and gave Wollongong a loud, warm shout-out: “How ya' doing, Wollongong?” This band is incredibly underrated.

They battled issues with sound and a fairly lethargic audience, but eventually, everyone seemed to wake up. From the addictive indie pop of Cub Scouts to the down-to-earth indie rock of Loon Lake, this show was certainly a mixed bag.