Live Review: Warpaint, Big Thief

On support duty tonight, Brooklyn-based quartet Big Thief look as if they raided Savers for their stage outfits. There's something Nordic about lead singer/songwriter Adrianne Lenker's vocals, which call to mind Emiliana Torrini. Lenker's versatility ensures her voice sounds equally beautiful whether singing hushed phrases or belting out power notes (see: Real Love). Bassist Max Oleartchik has some kind of little stuffed toy critter popping out the top of his aqua zip-front short-sleeved shirt (a rabbit, perhaps?).

Lenker admits, "We're feeling weird... We've been having some technical difficulties." But they sound just fine from where we're sitting. Then Lenker observes, "This is probably the most people we've ever played to... I kinda just wanna get off the stage and come around and say, 'Hi'!" Guitarist Buck Meek takes over on lead vocals during a song that contains the lyrics, "You said you were my best friend," and shakes his head constantly throughout to further enhance vibrato. A fantastically talented and enigmatic group. 

For Warpaint, punters rise to their feet, vacating picnic blankets and moving closer to the stage. The positioning of cameras recording onscreen content is inspired, allowing aerial views that particularly highlight drummer Stella Mozgawa's laid-back style. Song two, Heads Up (the title track from the band's latest album), impresses. What resembles a kaleidoscope of sour worms rotates on the stage's back screen. "Welcome to the Melbourne Zoo, we're all animals here," lead singer/guitarist Emily Kokal jests before Undertow, which features eerie, echoing, harmonising vocal lines.

The wind picks up, making strings of fairy lights dance in the trees as we dance along with No Way Out, which takes on a new meaning when played inside a zoo and features Peter Hook-inspired bass as played by Jenny Lee Lindberg. Next up is The Stall, during which some punters towards the back recline on picnic blankets, appreciating the mesmeric drone of Warpaint with eyes closed. Elephants is a genius inclusion given our setting and some of Kokal's soaring, emotive notes call to mind Bjork. "I hope the animals are digging it — the other animals," Kokal jokes. "Happy 40th, Ben!" Kokal calls out to one lucky birthday boy before Warpaint's haunting masterpiece Love Is To Die.

Note to gents using ladies' portaloos: at least have the courtesy to put the seat down after use!

Backed up against her amp, pink-haired Lindberg's knee-knocking dance moves channel Shakin' Stevens and she's cool as fuck. The band's new song New Song ("Dancing to you all night long") is probably their poppiest yet. We can't speak for "the other animals", but we definitely dig Warpaint.