It was a very wet
night in Sydney, but it wasn’t enough to dampen the spirits of the excited and
devoted crowd sheltering from the rain inside the Oxford Art Factory. Adelaide’s Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! couldn’t be extinguished either, with their
high energy set capping off a great bill of bands on a Thursday night.

First cab off the rank
was latest Spunk Records signing Bearhug,
who make dreamy style pop songs with the occasional kick. One song
that kicked quite hard was ‘Grapefruit’, with more layers than you can poke a stick at
and ethereal vocals floating nicely on top of it all. Unsurprisingly, it's
the first single from their upcoming EP To Anything due out June 25th.
With three guitars in the
band, the songs were as dense as you’d imagine, coated with a thin lacquer
of reverb. At times though vocalist Ryan Phelan’s vocals seemed a little muffled
and I was unable to make out the lyrics. Despite this, the band showed good energy
and seemed to be enjoying themselves to a room that was slow to fill and
featured quite an empty floor. I look forward to hearing what they have to
offer on their upcoming EP.

Slotting in next on
the four-band bill were Traps, another
Sydney band who have had plenty of coverage but had yet to fit into my live
music schedule. I must say I was highly impressed. Traps showed great
confidence - in particular their bass player who had an extreme nonchalant
attitude but would intermittently (and particularly on crescendos) have a flurry
of energy. The band had a strangely original sound. Strange in the way that it
seems it's been done before, but at the same time they add a new spin to it.
With their varying
displays of sound,
Traps are definitely a band I would like to delve into and see again.

National support for
the album launch tour was Sydney’s own Deep
Sea Arcade, ripping through a set of 60’s inspired pop. Written beautifully,
their songs are
laden with melodies that get stuck in your head for days.
In particularly ‘Don’t Be Sorry’, which had a fair amount of radio time on
community stations earlier in the year. Complimenting the infectious melodies
was a nasally voice that on any other instance would be extremely annoying,
but it fit the context of the music so well. Deep Sea Arcade were a very tight
band and didn’t miss a beat, from the Jagger-esque struts of the front man to
the unmistakable sounds of plucked bass. One of the bands that certainly
sprung to mind during the set was The Zombies. Although this is a big call in
making a comparison, I must say Deep Sea Arcade do a fine take on 60’s pop.

Rounding out the night
was Adelaide’s Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!.
Genuinely surprised by the turnout who had braved the rain and came to see them
play, they also seemed to be quiet nervous despite their half tentative and
hilarious stage banter. The bands sound can be likened to Metric in some ways
due to the similar vocal delivery of Caitlin Duff. The similarities end there
though with pulsing bass lines and choppy guitar chords coming into play. The
vocal interplay between Duff and guitarist/vocalist David William’s adds a nice
touch to the songs, during chorus sometimes using a call and response style. The
crowd was well and truly on their feet for most of the set with pockets of the
Oxford Art Factory audience dancing and jumping around. One song which featured
both of these was ‘Little Cowboys, Bad Hombres’.

It seemed the crowd
also had its fair share of Rowdy Roddy Piper fans with many chanting “Hotrod!”
at drummer Sam Stearne proudly exhibiting his “HOTROD!” red ringer t-shirt.
Topping of what was already a great set by Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire! They chose
to round out the night with a pleasantly surprising cover of Fleetwood Mac’s
“The Chain” bringing the band together to sing in harmony, much to the delight
of those present.