Live Review: Michelle Xen + The Neon Wild, Back Back Forward Punch

Melbourne's Back Back Forward Punch have received a small share of media praise for their recent run of singles, and rightly so. The complementary combo of Laura Boland's voice and Andy Liddell's production is quite fruitful on each of these studio efforts, and the cleverly cute video for Don't Stop Now is simply a joyous little affair. Unfortunately it just doesn't quite translate through to their live set tonight. There's little in the way of stage presence between the two of them, and the songs lose most of their allure along the way. Things pick up a little with their last song, Emergency Bow Tie, but it's too little too late to make any kind of impact.

Tonight it's evident from the outset that Michelle Xen + The Neon Wild have stepped things up a level. With her playful mixture of music, art and fashion, Xen has delivered some diverse delights with this project over the past couple of years. And now, to top it all off, the band is actually beginning to sound like quite a well-oiled unit. Even more of a marvel in its live incarnation, opener On For You is an exercise in refinement and restraint that really sets the mood. It acts as a strong foundation of subtle dynamism from which the more lively numbers are able to unfold, but, perhaps even more importantly, it also acts to bathe the audience in the band's luminescent aura so they may be lured deeper into the folds of this performance. From here it becomes an intensified set, with the band channelling their newfound sonic power through an array of climactic eruptions. It's no wonder the band has gelled so strongly, given it's incorporated half of the now-disbanded Re:Enactment. Sam Mitchell is the great percussive force that propels this machine, and Shane Rudken is simply among the most animated and infectious performers out there. But whereas Re:Enactment's weakest link always seemed to be their frontman, Xen's visionary guidance rather sparks a vast fireworks display of creative possibilities. It's all here: eccentric costumes, rose-petal showers and ecstatic performances all served up on a grand platter of iridescent synth-pop.  Michelle Xen + The Neon Wild not only have one of the strongest stage presences around, they also deliver an auditory-visual-kinetic experience like few others out there.