Live Review: The Kite String Tangle, Dustin Tebbutt

First off, for those that haven’t been, The Triffid feels like an aircraft hanger, with a large arched ceiling, but one that’s been perfectly transformed for occasions such as this.

Dustin Tebbutt brings a two-piece band with him, a multi-instrumentalist and drummer, playing mostly rock music with electronic elements mixed in to spice things up a bit. Behind them is a backdrop of mountains with a projection spiraling around slowly, matching their sound perfectly. Sonically they’re reminiscent of shoegaze with a big reliance on effects and swooping guitar lines, but maybe laptopgaze would be a more suitable term, with strong indie sensibilities. Between songs Tebbutt attempts to talk with the crowd but most people take the opportunity to talk with each other and muffle any sound coming from the stage until the band starts the next song. Their music is not too challenging and you could easily while away a Sunday listening to it, yet it’s upbeat enough that people are dancing to it on a Saturday night.

Brisbane producer Danny Harley aka The Kite String Tangle, surrounded by synths and a desk covered in bright lights, turns the hanger-like feeling into that of a warehouse. He’s joined on stage by drummer Isaac Cavallaro, bringing some analogue back into the otherwise electronic-heavy sounds. For the most part it helps tie the night together, since moving directly from indie-rock into purely electronic, may have been disjointed. However, when Tiana Khasi gets on stage for Stone Cold, the live drums see the song lose some of its garage feeling. This doesn’t stop the bass from kicking through everything nicely and they finish the song with what sounds like the main refrain of the Hermitude remix. Throughout their set, the transitions between songs seem more fluid and natural than those of Dustin Tebbutt.

Given The Chance has hands-in-the-air vocal samples and old school synth lines. Commotion gets a few people dancing and there are definitely more heads bopping than at other times. Of course Arcadia gets the most cheering and mandatory singalong by the crowd.

At the end Tebbutt jumps back on stage for a couple of songs, including TKSTXDT’s Illuminate, to calm everything down before finishing the night. All in all a great party, going through the realms from indie-rock to electronic-indie.