Live Review: San Cisco, Thelma Plum

T-H-E-L-M-A is spelt out in large silver balloon letters on the stage to celebrate the arrival of Thelma Plum. She’s got a fresh look with a short pixie-like blonde haircut to match her bright new tracks including Future Kids and Ice Cream. "This is actually my favourite place in the world," she says in front of her live audience who’s glad to have her back in Melbourne. Plum gives new life to a her much-loved older songs including Around Here, which is a departure from the familiar solo acoustic-folk to a mature band production with drums and electric guitar baselines to add more depth. She shares a powerfully emotive new song written for her brother that she says will be on her highly anticipated album. 

The stage illuminates with coloured party lights and a blue-sky backdrop featuring a tropical palm tree for San Cisco to kick-start the disco. Did You Get What You Came For? is the perfect introduction to their new sound that’s packed with glittery synths and catchy riffs to get us grooving along. "So we've just released our third record The Water, has anybody heard it?" asks frontman Jordi Davieson. "We hope you have because it's so much better when you sing along!" It’s clear that the audience has already given it a few spins over the last couple of weeks to know most of the words by now. 

Davieson admits, "We were about mid-way through recording the album and it was hard. But then we watched The Lego Movie and wrote a song about it!" The result of this is a super funky disco-infused track called The Distance. It’s evident that the colourful plastic bricks have inspired their catchy lyrics as he sings, "Baby, tessellate I wanna connect with you if it ain’t too late." It’s fun and exciting to hear the band explore a different style to further enhance their quirkiness. They’ve reinvented themselves and have developed their style with new layers of electronic sounds combined with their familiar indie-pop to keep us dancing along. Snow is about being on tour, which Davieson explains is the group’s favourite part of the whole experience as they get to share their new material and see our reaction. 

"Have you ever been really close with someone and then it just disappears? That's what this ones about," reveals Davieson before launching into their relatable summer anthem Hey, Did I Do You Wrong? They give us some light and shade with B Side, which is probably the happiest song they've ever written, and in contrast Wash It All Away goes out to all those fucked up relationships.

Just when we think we've predicted the encore, San Cisco continues to surprise us by changing things up. Davieson re-appears solo to play an acoustic version of Waiting For The Weekend before the rest of band joins back on stage for the uplifting Sunrise and RUN, dedicated to all the Isabellas.