Live Review: Pro Vita, YELLOWCATREDCAT, The Pierce Brosnans

There’s a buzz about the air as the Fortitude Valley precinct springs to life on this Thursday evening, and we rush up the stairs into iconic local venue Black Bear Lodge as the first sounds of drums echo out into the night.

The Pierce Brosnans are already up on stage, in full swing, and they’re explosive. There’s a certain connection you make with a band the first time you hear them cover one of your favourite childhood cartoon theme songs — in this case, it’s the Powerpuff Girls, and oh my god. The room is filled with mostly twentysomething guys and the occasional girl, and everyone has a grin plastered on their faces; it’s a beautiful sight to see. There are smiles and laughter all through their set, the boys onstage seeming to emit an aura of casual fun, making the dark venue full of strangers appear more like a dim afternoon at your childhood best friend’s living room in front of the Nintendo.

Local party cats YELLOWCATREDCAT are up next, and we’re suddenly thrown out of the party of our youth and back into our teenage years. It’s like the first gig this writer ever attended — loud, dark, and we can’t really understand what’s going on. It’s an absolute riot. They bang out a couple of new ones, including recent single Animal, and head into both Spiders and STARS, setting the now-swollen crowd into a frenzy. If you ever need an instant party, this band is your go-to.

We duck outside for a few minutes after their set to get some fresh air and some room to breathe (when did so many people get here?) and, before long, we’re herded back up the stairs like children in a playground, and we all pile into the live room in front of the band and their giant alien-man banner. Pro Vita have been on their Friends Forever tour for a while and, here in their home town, they’re naturally surrounded by all their friends, so it comes as a delight when they bust out classic song Graduation, by Vitamin C, and there’s not a quiet person in the venue; everybody is singing along, even one of the bartenders. The crowd is getting pretty into it and, at one point, somebody decides to start a circle pit, and there are people jumping everywhere. Several try to crowd-surf, somebody loses a shoe, and we find ourselves laughing uncontrollably as we try to push ourselves against the wall and out of the way of literally everyone else. The set is over painfully quickly, but the vibes keep going well into the night, and we find ourselves singing Graduation as we walk home, many hours later.