Reviewed on Friday August 28
It’s been a few months since Oslow last graced a Sydney stage. Not that it’s apparent, of course – the quartet seem constantly locked into one another’s movements, delivering a garage-dwelling math rock sound that has evolved into something quintessentially linked to the band’s name. Although the surrounds of Manning were unfamiliar territory to a band mostly accustomed to smaller rooms such as Black Wire Records or even Newtown Social Club, they were able to impressively adapt to the environment – as was their small but vocal fan base, which made itself especially present during the closing one-two of ‘Blue On Blue’ and ‘Cliffy’. There’s no doubt about it – when we’re talking Oslow, we’re talking one of the most interesting and promising bands in the country. The same cannot be said, however, for Awaken I Am, who are barely worth the energy it takes to write their name, let alone the sentence that contains it.
While many will look back to A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out or From Under The Cork Tree as the vital records of the mall emo period, it could well be argued that it’s Motion City Soundtrack’s Commit This To Memory that has persevered out of the entire lot. One could certainly be led to believe so by gauging the reaction from fans at the packed-out Manning, who sang the opening combo of ‘Attractive Today’ and ‘Everything Is Alright’ with all the gusto and fist-clenching triumph of a decade prior. Like any great front-to-back album show, this was a display of both what this record means to people after so many years as well as a testament to the individuals behind it.
We can’t discuss the evening without mentioning the elephant in the room – or, as it was later dubbed, the “spaceship”. No less than half a dozen times over the course of the evening, the PA made a deafening gurgle and nearly blew out everything onstage. It’s not acceptable for a professional venue to have this level of screw-up, and it threatened to ruin the evening. Even so, they made it through the album and into favourites like ‘The Future Freaks Me Out’ and ‘This is For Real’, refusing to let the technical problems rain on their parade. It ended up serving as a greater metaphor for Motion City Soundtrack’s career – no matter what shit gets thrown their way, they keep on coming back.
