San CiscoFew things are better for the soul than putting on your dancing shoes for a night of poppy indie goodness, and what a sad day it might’ve been if Adelaide had been left off San Cisco’s Gracetown tour. The sold-out crowd packed the Gov to the brim for the show that almost never was.
Methyl Ethel hit the stage first, the lead singer suitably sporting a tea cosy-inspired beanie on a cold winter’s night. The Gov heated up as the audience bopped along with the band’s pleasing pop tunes, a suitable opening act for some of the frontrunners of the Aussie indie scene.
The vibe changed noticeably as the dreamy sounds of Crooked Colours filled the air, drawing curious punters from the beer garden inside to catch their set. The band gave us a smooth blend of eclectic electro sounds and accompanying dance moves. Despite a short technical malfunction during a cover of psychedelic anthem Electric Feel, the crowd was well and truly warmed up and vibing on the tunes.
The first lines of Golden Revolver were almost unheard over the unrelenting screaming of teenage girls in the front row as San Cisco launched their set. As an ex-fangirl, it warms this reviewer’s heart to see the latest generation of obsessives choosing to indulge in music tastes far more refined than mine were in their 2010 heyday, lead singer Jordi Davieson relishing in the countless phone cameras following him around the stage, aiming dance moves and hair flips in their direction.
The band smiled their way through their latest album, old hits and “oh I totally didn’t realise they did that one song on that ad” tunes like that Awkward song that’s just so goddamn catchy. Recent hit, Too Much Time Together re-energised the teeny-bopper in all of us. While Jordi continued to get the front row all hot and bothered, it was drummer Scarlett Stevens who managed to break hearts as she came to the front of the stage for smooth-jam Super Slow: all the admiration for a chick in a band, let alone one who can drum and sing and still look absolutely bangin’ all at the same time.
A double encore of Skool and Fred Astaire was truly the audience’s time to shine, as several people climbed up on stage only to be quickly shooed off by an unimpressed security guard. San Cisco had definitely satisfied the crowd as we left the venue with hearts full and heads fuzzy.
If there’s anything to be learned from last night, it’s that if you believe it hard enough, a stage dive is possible anywhere, even when you’re destined to be caught by rows of 15 year olds with top-knots.
