In addition to an appearance at this past New Years’ Fall Festival, Scotland’s own The View played a Sunday night sideshow at Melbourne’s Hifi Bar.

Opening was DZ, hailing from the Sunshine state with distorted, challenging punk songs bashed out between one guitar and one drum kit. I was glad to finally catch these guys live after living off of their EP, Ruined My Life
, it was great to catch the brutality their music exhumes in the flesh, with tunes reminiscent of the first Wolf and Cub EP, primitive, sharp and a little brash.

Then ambling on was The View, to that recognisable chant of “The View are on fire” radiating the crowd, showing their boisterous enthusiasm for the band immediately. On record the View have always been, to me, a little tame, entertaining but what they made was just fun pop songs, catchy and memorable, though live they took on an edge lacking in their recordings. It was energetic and cheeky, bassist Kieran and guitarist Kyle swapping between instruments and lead vocal duties, as they motored through a set consisting of fan favourites ‘Skag Trendy’, ‘Face for the Radio’, ‘The Don’, ‘Shock Horror’ and of course ‘Same Jeans’ inciting a sing-a-long from all involved. Though a particular highlight was the two new songs they played, from their new album currently being recorded, ‘Happy’ and ‘Walls’ (“a song about feeling shite. But then getting better...things always get better” our darling bassist assured). The two newer songs has this slightly darker appeal to them in comparison to the older tracks, though left me more intrigued than any other song they played.

Watching these four (sometimes five, when their keyboardist joined them on stage) Scotsmen was an entertaining way to spend a Sunday night. You can’t  help but come away feeling happy after spending an hour and a half singing and dancing along to their tongue-in-cheek songs about drunken shenanigans, nights on the town and being young and foolish in general.  These guys definitely have their live show down pat, making sure you have fun with it.