The Landsdowne Hotel is currently moving on to another of its 9(teen) lives, and is under renovation again. Gladly, for the moment at least, one of Sydney’s last legendary live venues seems to be living on. So its on a icy Saturday night, we descend on the Broadway stalwart to catch Local Rockers ‘Bad Moon Born’ on their East coast run.
It’s a fairly early schedule, so we only catch the last song from opening band Dreamers Crime, but the anthemic ‘Here We Are’ certainly had the crowd moving, and singing along. These guys had a good vibe… well worth catching.
Live Like Animals’ synth laden sound, reminded me of a bit 80’s new wave meets 90’s metal in a Linkin Park gone retro kinda way… I found myself wondering if a keytar wouldn’t have gone astray to top things off. The band put on a high-octane show, and the crowd certainly dug them. Having only ever seen Singer Songwriter gigs in this room previously, the energy levels in the room were definitely climbing into the red.
Start Your Own Cult kicked off with singer Sarah Bernardo in the crowd, shepherding the punters toward the front of stage. Top marks for motivated Crowd work! Audience rearrangement sorted, the band kick into gear, the singers’ gigawatt smile, incendiary attitude and big voice translate into enough energy to solve the energy crisis for the winter! The cover of Ocean Ave by Yellowcard certainly went down a storm, but make no mistake, Start Your Own Cult have enough tunes to stand on their own. By the end of the set, the stage was radiating enough heat to keep the chill outside, and the cult certainly had won plenty of new converts.
Bad Moon Born come in screaming. Singer Jordan Von Grae is like a Heavy Metal Adam Lambert… giving good chat as well as fantastic range. If he’s suffering with a cold, I’d love to catch him fully fit! That said, a singer with a cold is one thing, but the “Play the damn show & worry about it later award” goes to The Guitarist Voya, who is sporting a strapped up wrist due to a spill during soundcheck. This turns out to be a break, which puts paid to the Brisbane show on Sunday, but Big salutes to him for gritting his teeth & doing this one! Aside from the ill advised NSYNCH cover (It’s gonna be me) Bad Moon Born don’t put a foot wrong, and the crowd are going suitably nuts by the time the lights go out.
The intimate Annandale stage was the perfect setting for a bill like this, so here’s hoping that the new regime keep the lights on in Broadway for plenty more in the future.
Review by Biggs | Photos by Adam Sivewright
Bad Moon Born
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Start Your Own Cult, Like Like Animals, Dreamers Crime
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