Two Door Cinema Club: Mon, January 7 @ Tivoli

Words by Scenewave Australia - Published on January 31, 2013

By Greg Mackenzie

It’s not often that a bass player gets love, let alone more love than anyone else on stage. This is not so for Andrew Dooris of The Jungle Giants who finished a series of side shows supporting alongside The Vaccines for Two Door Cinema Club on Tuesday night at The Tivoli.

Playing in front of aBrisbanehome crowd; there was undoubtedly a small but vocal minority of Tivolians (or is it Tivolites?) who had a greater reason to be excited about the Brissy band than they did the two big names from across the pond/ponds. Andrew Dooris who performs like there’s a UV line filled with Red Bull hooked into his blood stream, is a big part of this reason.

My (entirely heterosexual) crush on Andrew is long running, but it didn’t become a full blown love affair until much recently when I caught Jungle Giants on Last Dinosaur’s Satellites tour. Mid-way through their set I see Andrew briefly tonguing lead singer Sam Hales ear, serving to prove how much of a nutter this guy is.

Sadly, the Tivoli performance was ear-fellatio free and their 5 song set was solid none the less. My only criticism being that it was too short to really show case how amazing this band is. Whilst crowd favourites “She’s a Riot” and “Mr. Polite” went off, the band were by no means scraping the bottom of the barrel and many superb songs such as personnel favourite “Back to the Start” went unplayed.

As a casual Vaccines fan at best I found their performance impressive. Sitting at a computer or through the minute speakers of earphones is the wrong way to enjoy their music; these guys were made for the stage. Justin and the entire band add charisma to each song, whilst their ebbing but generally up tempo brand of indie-rock makes for a great setlist.

Though it was hard to pick a favourite, the masses were more than keen for a recognisable set list spanning their entire career; from their first single “Wrecking Bar” to tracks off both albums. “Norgaard” and “Teenage Icon” were smashing and the mood created by both “Wet Suit” and “Post Break-Up Sex” was particularly fun.

Two Door Cinema Club followed The Vaccines and immediately proved that the lengthy wait was worth it, kick-starting an extensive set superbly with “Sleep Alone” and continuing upwards from there.

Alex Trimble makes for a charming Irish host (subtitles required at times), though a past career in nursery rhyme hand-action devising is not out of the question. How he has continued to get away with making triangle symbols in “Pyramid” up until now is bewildering. I’m sure the adolescent female members of the audience were swooning at this and other suitably questionable hand gestures. Whilst the band may not have had the same physical stage presence as the two before, spectacular lighting effects more than made up for it.

No second guesses for what the crowd favourite was, as the voices of a sold out Tivoli dwarfed the noise of the speakers during “Undercover Martyn”, their second song for the night. What followed from then on was an impressive session of music selected from an impressive repertoire of impressive songs. Look, it was just bloody impressive alright!  It is not until you hear a lengthy set of their songs that you realise just how many good ones there are. A quality segment of the night was when Alex asked the audience to substitute the voice of Valentina Pappalardo for the chorus in “The World is Watching”.

Both Beacon and their earlier Tourist History were evenly represented across the performance, with so many stand outs it’s difficult to name any singular highlight. Just consider it one big, stellar, inner ear-drum orgasm. Though personal favourites “You Are Not Stubborn” and “Handshake” proved to be my own.

Overall, the night proved a more than satisfactory slice of Falls Festival for those who missed it and the music of all three bands, which spans the indie-rock genre across a broad range of tempos, complimented each other magnificently.