Reviewed on Friday May 15
Gang Of Youths began their sold-out The Positions tour with a hometown show at Oxford Art Factory, where the audience unsurprisingly embraced the band with open arms. The local outfit returned the affection by delivering a set filled with their trademark high level of intensity and passion that has helped them become such quick and well-deserved successes.
Before that though, Ecca Vandal played a set that showed that if she wants to capitalise on her early buzz, she really needs to step it up. Aside from the baffling move of pairing Gang Of Youths’ anthemic indie rock with her prog-rap/rock hybrid material in the first place, her set never really distinguished itself, becoming a tuneless mush. It doesn’t matter how loud you play or how many fancy synthesisers you have onstage with you, dull music will only ever be dull music. Add to that her desperate attempts at crowd work for an audience that was never interested, and the set fell somewhere between boring and cringeworthy.
Thankfully the first note Gang Of Youths played wiped away all memory of the previous set. People have really latched onto this band, and there are many potential reasons why. Maybe it’s a display of triple j’s still present immense influence. Maybe people can’t enough of Arcade Fire and The National, and a band that trades in the perfect mix between the two couldn’t not be successful. Maybe Australian audiences will always help an Australian band succeed (although the multitude of brilliant but struggling Melbourne bands disproves this theory). Honestly, I think the real reason Gang Of Youths have found success so quickly is because they’re a talented band playing great music, which is a rarity, but the best possible reason.
Every song is greeted with cheers and every word is sung along to by the crowd. The best songs – ‘Poison Drum’, ‘Radioface’, ‘Vital Signs’ – highlight what the band do best; urgent rock with consistent waves of released tension played with full conviction and precision, alongside emotionally empowering lyrics. The players onstage flail around and literally crash into each other along with the music, as if their instruments can’t fully express the power of the songs.
Frontman Dave Leaupepe is obviously overjoyed by the reaction their hour-long, ten-track debut has garnered. A little too much, if his banter to the crowd is anything to go on, filled with clichés like “Live your dreams” and “Don’t let the man tell you what to do”. But they play unashamed, heart-on-their-sleeves rock, so why should the banter be any different? Besides, Leaupepe’s incredible vocal range more than makes up any MC shortfalls.
With a powerful performance that never wavered, choice covers of two Canadian women – a tease of Shania Twain’s ‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman!’ and a sombre, solo version of Joni Mitchell’s ‘A Case Of You’ – and a genuine love shown for the audience, Gang Of Youths marked themselves as a band that’s here to stay.
