Local Singapore group These Brittle Bones kicked things off at the Crazy Elephant on the last night of Music Matters, with a British lead singer on the keys, who just so happens to be fourteen! I don’t know about you, but I certainly wasn’t performing at an international industry event at that age.
The music he and his four piece band produced – which included violin! – was nothing short of melodic and beautiful. Reminiscent of artists like Bright Eyes, Final Fantasy and Rufus Wainwright; and certainly full of their influence, though as he pointed out, these were all original songs – something which I’m sure most 14 year olds in bands have trouble attesting too. Very impressive. My friend Rowan described the, as “an acoustic Art of Sleeping” which I agreed with, and perhaps that will put it in some local context for you. All in all, this is a young band with a lot of promise, and their next single “Bloom” should definitely do well when it traverses the digital world.
Next up at the venue were Brisbane’s Cub Scouts, who had the venue packed with a few expats, but a whole heap of locals. “Told You So” seemed to be as big of a hit with the crowds here as it was in Australia before it broke as a single; easy singalong with plenty of energy, how can you go wrong? They also performed a rarely seen Beyonce medley that included “Say My Name”, “Jumpin’ Jumpin'” and “Crazy For You” that excited the crowd, and even had the underage kids dancing with their parents at the back of the venue.
It’s a thrill seeing Australian talents doing so well on the road overseas, and this can definitely be said about Cub Scout’s performance: they killed it. They’re off to Vietnam next and we’ll definitely be looking forward to hearing how that goes!
