Reviewed on Friday August 14 (photo by Ashley Mar)
If you take five years to release a sophomore album, you run the risk of stagnating the growth of your fan base. This may be the case with Miami Horror. The indie-electro outfit’s 2011 album Illuminations was a phenomenon, but while the new record All Possible Futures has undoubtedly furthered their musical prowess, their live show at the Metro felt slightly stilted and unevolved, unable to remove the patina of their original success.
But with a plump three-act bill including Cleopold, Joy. and Young Franco, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It seemed a large retinue of fans in their early 30s were there with the extant purpose of reliving the glory days. Francocertainly facilitated the throwback vibes, pumping out a slew of Daft Punk, Stardust and other millennial hits. The cavernous Metro can have the propensity to dwarf its performers, but the energetic Brisbanite managed to shrink the space down to fun-sized proportions.
Miami Horror’s five-piece live set is a well-oiled machine, and it’s always a kick to see Josh Moriarty and Aaron Shanahan throw themselves around the stage. Extravagant guitar flourishes and mountain-climbing the Metro’s mezzanine made up for notoriously mediocre vocals. The band graciously compiled an array of tracks from both albums, pleasing the crowd with ‘I Look To You’, ‘Sometimes’ and the jubilant ‘Holiday’. The new tracks slotted in seamlessly, the exception being ‘Love Like Mine’, for which Cleopoldcame onstage only to butcher violently.
The level of musicality displayed was impressive, at times taking on a house-like complexity of rhythms and tonalities for which keys guru Daniel Whitechurch can take credit. It may have felt like Miami Horror were catering to an audience that remembered them for who they used to be, but when the quality of performance is as high as this, it seems prudent to stretch the illusion as far as possible.
