Last Sunday night saw UK lads The Klaxons grace our stage at the HQ complex. A stage stunt in France left frontman Jamie Reynolds sporting a broken ankle earlier this year, which led to the cancellation of their planned tour. This made way for a quick rescheduling, which meant Adelaide managed to secure a night with the ever so popular 2007 Mercury Music Prize winners.
Energetic Melbourne rockers Damn Arms warmed the crowd up and certainly earned their stripes as being more than just a support act. Forming in 2005, the band will be following The Klaxons around for the Australian leg of their tour, which I’m sure will be an impressive add to their expanding performance CV.
The crowd were most definitely a friendly bunch. A refreshing mix of uber-cool indie kids… Ans then everyone else. Gazing around the room, it appeared that intricate face painting was the new craze; or was this an identifiable branding used to educate others of their allegiance to a particular clique? Either way, the intimate club environment at HQ was a pleasant change, and far more accommodating than your standard venue. With both bars open in the main room, a refresher of the cup didn’t mean having to that you’d have to miss any of the excitement.
In font of the stage had been claimed by the die hard fans with all their screaming, loose moves and erratic punches into space with glowstick-laden hands. Towards the back remained for those who either didn’t fancy a dance, or hadn’t yet had that third beer. Scattered around the upper levels seemed to be the quieter ones whose friends had dragged them along because they heard on the grapevine the Klaxons were so hot right now!
At 9:30 the wait was over and the super stylish nu-ravers took to the stage. Their entrance wouldn’t have won them any awards for grandeur, but all can be forgiven as anyone would be tired after performing to a sold out Melbourne crowd the night before. The first chords were struck and off we went ,dancing away to the unmistakeable (and sometime undefinable) sounds of The Klaxons. The gig was kicked off with a cover of The Bouncer originally by Kicks Like A Mule. Full attention was won throughout the venue as the room echoed with the intergalactic synth siren that we all know could only belong to Atlantis To Interzone. There was barely a break between songs, except for the odd reminder about how fantastic the Adelaide crowds are! This of course kept the adrenalin pumping and energy levels at an upmost peak.
The happy fans were then unified in belting out the lyrics to the second cover for the evening, the absolute classic It’s Not Over Yet. The boys farewelled the Adelaide stage in what proved to be a short and sweet performance indeed. In what should have been a fitting tribute, the crowd littered the stage with discarded glow paraphernalia. But this done to an empty stage was probably more of an inconvenience to the crew than a symbol of one’s respect.
The post show tunes belonged to DJ Kane of Rocket Bar. As the afterparty was cancelled, it would have been nice to have the music slightly cranking more. But everyone adjusted to the toned-down atmosphere, and I caught up friends to discuss what might have been one of THE tours of the year….. Although I was hoping for more lasers! Second tour maybe?
