Live Review: The Getaway Plan, Siren Lines

The Lansdowne has tried for a long time to re-establish itself as one of Sydney's better live pub music venues. It still has a long way to go. Regular microphone feedback and poor levels from the desk marred this night. It couldn't be blamed entirely on the techy, who was busy running around trying to fix whatever hardware problem had most recently surfaced, but was it nonetheless disappointing.

Having said that, the bands themselves were excellent. There were four support bands, the pick of the bunch being Siren Lines. It's extremely hard to categorise their sound, but it lands somewhere between Foals and Nirvana, is incredibly melodic and a lot of fun to listen to, so much so that this reviewer even went and picked up their CD after the event.

Once The Getaway Plan took the stage, however, there was no doubt left in the room as to who the headline act was. Despite a fairly average punter turnout, the show the band put on was phenomenal. They opened with Streetlight and followed it with The Reckoning. The sound was loud and raw, yet exceptionally tight. It was obvious this was a band that had been there and done that. This only got better once the aforementioned techy was able to fix the bass problems and you could hear the whole band. They sounded almost exactly like they do on their recordings, and despite lacking violins, were a blast to see play. They finished with Where The City Meets The Sea and Strings, which were both crowd sing-along favourites.

They say a poor tradesman blames his tools. Lesser bands would have resigned themselves to the technical faults of the venue. Given their performance, I wouldn't be surprised if The Getaway Plan could hammer in a nail with a carrot.