Review: Boy & Bear, Jinja Safari, Emma Louise @ the Hi Fi
Words: Jane Scarffe
Pictures: Kate Scantleton
Saturday June 4
Cairns local, Emma Louise opened the proceedings on Saturday. She disarmed the sold out crowd at the Hi-Fi with her carefully crafted indie pop. Think in the same vein of other female talents Holly Throsby or Sarah Blasko but with a more up-tempo beat. He demeanour on stage was professional despite this being her first time on tour and thanks to some Triple J play with the track Jungle she received a warm audience reception.
Bringing vines, ponchos and their unique ‘forest rock’ aesthetic to the stage, Jinja Safari delighted everyone in the venue. Their boundless energy and incredible enthusiasm made the group a joy to watch on stage. It was clear they were enjoying themselves immensely which helped them quickly and completely win over the audience.
Leaping about as they played tracks off their self-titled EP they introduced the audience to ‘ugly-dancing’ an inhibition free form of movement. Ugly dancing is something I have been proficient in for nearly twenty years and it was great to see it promoted to a larger audience. Even when playing the slower songs in their set Jinja Safari were a whirlwind of movement and finale Peter Pan, in which a massive sitar was seemingly pulled out of nowhere was magnificent.
Boy & Bear, on this tour managed to sell out most of their shows, which is mightily impressive when you remember they have yet to release their debut album. From the minute they took the light bulb bedecked stage, which also featured a number of suitcases dangling mid-air, the crowd were enamoured. The lack of an album obviously did not deter the audience, singing along to tracks from the 2010 EP With Emperor Antartica ardently. The band took the chance to play new material from their upcoming album which was in keeping with the band’s sound and went down well with the boisterous and enthusiastic crowd.
Boy & Bear produce music that is delicate and intricate but not exactly high energy, nevertheless tracks like Mexican Mavis and Blood to Gold delighted the crowd as well as stand out tracks like new single Feeding Line and Crowded House cover Fall at Your Feet. The Crowded House cover was particularly moving, even bringing a girl next to me to tears. The rapturous applause the song received in both its opening and closing moments I think indicated they were tears of joy.
Refreshingly, the band made it clear they would not be performing an encore, saying they found the idea, “weird.” While this dismayed the majority of the audience I appreciated it. With relatively new bands encores are usually the part of the show where they play the most popular track or a cover and generally use it to drag out the show a bit for the fans. Boy & Bear had already produced an outstanding set and didn’t feel the need to bow to pressure.
Emma Louise, Jinja Safari and finally Boy & Bear made excellent touring partners,it was an utterly charming and enchanting evening of high quality music featuring three upcoming talents in the Australian music industry.
