Live Review: Since I Left You

“Get a drink, have a good time now. Welcome to paradise…”

For many music lovers of the past decade, hearing those words opens a Pavlovian mental gateway to a tropical dream escape. It's the opening seconds of Since I Left You, the album that elevated The Avalanches to cult status in Australian music and fed the almost never-ending hype preceding their long-promised sophomore album.

To hear – and see – a record famously built entirely out of samples brought to life on stage by Jonti and a herd of musicians from Astral People was a spiritual experience for fans on Saturday night.

On each end of the Concert Hall stage were nightstands holding lamps, mutant telephones and kooky skeletons. Record sleeves leaned to one side, a stray lifebuoy hooked around an amp. The 16-strong throng took to the stage and it wasn't long before the whole theatre was on their feet for an exotic, at times stormy, always funky ride.

Jonti, who brought this project together as a symbol of Avalanche “appreciation”, showed boundless enthusiasm as vocalist, rapper, guitarist, conductor and producer, showing a knowledge of intricate layers and samples that only the most painstaking deconstruction could divulge and frequently jumping for joy.

Rainbow Chan showed equal passion, lending the composition her own incredible vocal and emotional range, as well as her renowned dance moves and saxophone skills alongside her sister Rose on trumpet. The chemistry between the entire band was palpable, with fellow Sydney singer and musician Jack Colwell – who helped arrange the six-strong strings section – periodically emerging to leap across the stage and fling glowsticks into the crowd.

The strings came into their own not only in the opening title track but the pulsing Electricity and the dreamy Little Journey. Quirky vocals from across the group – like the two percussionists' shouts of “Oh can't you hear it? / MONEY!”  in Love In 3/4 Time – lent the performance a surreal music-theatre vibe.

The tight transition from that song's nautical chaos – which had us reaching for the lifebuoy – into the infectious Avalanche Rock, to the glitchy piano samples and Rainbow Chan's seductive rendition of Tonight were highlights – not forgetting the glorious pastiche that is Frontier Psychiatrist, with Jonti vocally jousting vinyl samples of the psychiatrist himself as coconuts danced on the screens behind him.

After an ending of rousing harmonies and frenzied reverberations, the silence was quickly broken by a yell from the stalls: “DO IT AGAIN!”

Jonti responded with a nervous laugh, half-appreciative, half-utterly exhausted. But there was more: an original track, written by Jonti in tribute to a woman who brought him up in his native South Africa, with a poignant a cappella section led by Colwell: “Oh the love I have for you, Maria…” followed by a bouncing, danceable beat.

It was a fitting end to one hell of a tribute where they truly did turn the joint upside down.