Live Review: The Cat Empire, Grace Barbe, Archer

Opener Archer was one of the most interesting characters hailing from Melbourne. His style was country-blues, sung with an American accent, however, when he spoke, it bounced between American and Australian. A throwback from his North Carolina days?

The next act, Grace Barbe, is always a class act. The venue was starting to fill up, with punters relaxing on the grass, but Barbe's sound got people up and dancing around. Their music transcends the spoken word and speaks to people on a much deeper level.

Their last song, Li Tounee, had the crowd “shaking their coconuts about”, everyone clearly enjoying themselves.

The Cat Empire came out on stage to a packed-out venue and started their set with Bulls, Brighter Than Gold and Creature.

As Felix Riebl sings in How To Explain, “music is the language of us all” and that was certainly the case as people were dancing, drinking, swaying and bopping to their funky music.

They played a few songs from their latest album – Bataclan, Rising With The Sun and Qué Será Ahora — as well as classics like Two Shoes, In My Pocket and The Chariot.

Their last song was All Night Loud, before they walked off to cheers and screams and returned. After a beautiful piano solo, they played The Wine Song, a fun sea shanty that would not be out of place in a pirate's bar.

The only bad part of the night? They didn't play The Car Song or Hello. As always, the smiles on their faces were infectious and no one left the gig unhappy.