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Words Mikaelie A. Evans.
Welcoming a swelling sea of Sydneysiders into Luna Park’s Big Top venue are Brisbane four piece, Morning Harvey. The breezy indie rockers ease through their set with the warmth of their sounds serenading the growing crowd.
A band kept an untold secret until recently, Morning Harvey introduce their eccentric and dynamic songs to the receptive punters who become one with the blissful evening.
Though a relatively large venue, The Big Top holds some sort of intimacy within as the stage lights produce a show of their own; soon there is a brief intermission and, after queuing for too long at the bar, the anticipated act of the evening begin… Through a wall of amplified fuzz, The Dandy Warhols erupt into their opening instrumental piece.
The large sea of heads bounce in unison as The Dandys groove into their pre-emptive set, though there are a few minor technical difficulties which are casually excused.
It’s a lucid scenario and the low murmurs begin like a thread of Chinese whispers amongst a section of punters; one guy asks another where to find some more MDMA. The intrinsically distant memories of a pleasant acid dream fold over our heads (or at least mine) alike a warm blanket, as ‘Crimson and Clover’ takes over the airwaves.
Zia McCabe takes a lot of the crowd interaction during their set; so with a strong show of crowd enthusiasm, she thanks us and The Dandy’s progress into another hit.
‘You Were The Last High’ begins and with that come the boisterous singalongs… We move our hips to the floating rhythm, singing along in unison to the babes upon the stage.
A song from their latest album, Distordland, is introduced and warmly reciprocated. ‘Catcher In The Rye’ flows into their set list perfectly. Frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor looks in his element as he woes out the truthful lyrics: “Anything will get you down if you let it.”
Unfortunately, there’s another technical difficulty to which the band are momentarily halted. They quickly resume playing… Though seemingly, and very unexpectedly, out of time. McCabe apologies again, though the others seem pretty nonchalant about the ordeal.
It seems time for an unscheduled intermission as the smoking balcony becomes illuminated by probably too many cigarettes ignited, for the band are still inside playing. A group of punters are seriously disappointed, announcing that not even more cans of beer will improve their experience this evening.
Coming back into the electrified venue, ‘Bohemian Like You’ satisfies most of the previous distaste that was spoken of outside. The warmth of the evening is comforting, and very fitting to the present moment.
The subtly divine entrance of ‘Godless’ begins, shadowed by the stage lights that are still producing their own spectacular show. The standing area sways through it, singing along towards the nearing end of the set.
Bringing it all to a close with ‘Boys Better’, The Dandy Warhols give off the impression that they no longer really give a fuck whether people have enjoyed their showcase or not. They’re thankful, as are the crowd, though we seriously expected more bang for our buck. They don’t really seem to have the ecstatic energy that we were hoping would be reciprocated.
McCabe starts spinning her decks, doing her own thing as punters begin exiting. We’re all cheering, anticipating the encore that doesn’t come. The entire band are back, more thankful to their audience then before, and abruptly disappear again.
Still behind her decks, McCabe continues to thank us, and enthusiastically announces that Sydney will be having their own DJ rescue party tonight, (it was at The Bank Hotel in Newtown), and we spill out into the night, eager for the next train there.