Middle Kids @ The Rosemount Hotel
w/ Ruby Fields
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
With their debut album now under their belt, Sydney indie sensation Middle Kids started their tour in Perth with a sold out show at the Rosemount. Tickets to any of the band’s upcoming shows are going to be rare as hen’s teeth as they continue to sell out bigger and bigger venues with each jaunt around the country.
Also racking up the Frequent Flyer points on this tour is opener Ruby Fields. With a band behind her, Fields played tunes that can mostly be found on her EP Your Dad’s Opinion For Dinner. There is a dry sense of slacker humour with P Plates, which is the kind of song that would make Fields the belle of any late night booze up thrown by Verge Collection. A robust take on Garbage’s Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!) was well received, with buzz tune I Want finishing a brisk yet strong set.
Few bands have the kind of hype associated with a debut album that Middle Kids have been able to garner, and they were appropriately beaming on the opening night of their album tour. For a band with such pulling power, it was something of a surprise that this was to be their first time headlining in Perth, but this has been in part due to briskness of their rise, more than a reflection of them consciously snubbing our windy city.
Album opener Bought It kicked things off with an instantly hummable melody as punters surged stage-ward. Hannah Joy plays guitar left handed, which makes her look more awkward than she probably is, whilst husband Tim Fitz bounded around the stage sporting his new ‘fierce’ haircut. Mistake was unleashed early and announced itself as the band’s finest tune to date with some fine tom work from drummer Harry Day.
Edge Of Town was introduced as the band’s catalyst song. It is a typical understated comment from the band who’s first ever single saw them being plastered all over the radio on and quickly finding themselves performing on Conan. Middle Kids don’t have any difficulty in pushing out melodic mid-tempo songs and Don’t Be Hiding was another one that they deliver with poise. All The Small Things by Blink 182 was given a stripped back and slower interpretation that fell flat against the band’s originals.
Joy dispenses with her guitar as she slinked around the stage during Fire In Your Eyes before explaining that the tune Please is about death – which appeared to be news to the rest of the band. Each musician in Middle Kids is beyond competent without being exceptional in their own right, but as a collective they are far greater than the sum of their parts.
On this night’s showing, there is little doubt that when the are at their best, Middle Kids are killer. The next stage of their development is to get rid of some of the songs that are filler.
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
Photos by Jackson Mead
