In the midst of their European and American legs of the tour, Infusion came home for two weeks and squeezed in four gigs on the East Coast. They played Splendour in the Grass, The Empire in Brisbane, and secret gigs in both Sydney and Melbourne. I was lucky enough to win a ticket to the secret Sydney gig from ITM, so I decided that Infusion were worth flying across the country for, even though I had seen them play in Perth only two months ago. With the upcoming release of their second album on a major label (BMG), I didn’t think I would get the opportunity to see them play again in such an intimate setting. After having a few drinks with a friend, we headed to the secret venue revealed only two day’s prior to the gig, Club 77. Neither my friend nor the taxi driver seemed to know which part of William Street, Club 77 was situated on. You would think the number 77 gave us some indication, but it unfortunately didn’t at the time. By sheer coincidence, three lovely guys by the names of Frank, Manuel and Jamie walked right by me on the street and happened to be also heading to Club 77! So I yabbered on about coming all the way over from Perth and they kindly escorted me there. Upon entering, there was probably only a maximum of 200 people in there. Most of the crowd seemed to be made up of Infusion’s friends and family, fellow ITM crew and music industry folk. There has been much discussion in the Sydney ITM Forum about which tracks Infusion actually played that night. Thanks to Babadee the following has been confirmed, in no correct order: Better World (which is their new single), Girls Can Be Cruel, Drop (funnily, the speakers fell over twice during that track), My Name is Radar, Love & Emotion, Do To You (In ‘82), which samples the Machinations, prompting Manuel to say they were heavily influenced by 80’s Aussie rock; and their remix of ‘Ghostbusters’. I reckon that ‘Starwater, it’s alright’ and ‘Legacy’ were also played, plus some great breakbeat tracks towards the end of the set. Other people who attended, swear Starwater wasn’t played but ‘Dead Souls’ was, so who knows? Maybe it’s all an excited blur. Infusion played a great energetic gig and their performance was ‘carefree’ in comparison to the previous time I’d seen them in Perth. Their casual attitude and the commentary before many of the tracks made this gig really special and a lot of fun. I really like Infusion’s catchy melodies and 80’s influences, combined with the pounding beats and layered sounds. I like how they improvise in the live situation, either one of them taking the lead and then quickly communicating to each other what they’re about to do next. Very occasionally it doesn’t work, but it doesn’t matter because it’s on-the-spot and creative. This is why seeing Infusion play live is so great – you never know what’s going to happen next, each performance ends up different. After the gig Infusion hung about and had a few drinks, chatting to those that remained. I continued on at Club 77 for a little while and then went off to see some other Sydney establishments before getting on a plane back to Perth and work at 6am. A big thank you to Infusion and BMG for a very special never-to-be-repeated night. Thanks also to ITM for the tickets and other great VIP competitions.
