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Loving a band that hails from Australia ain't easy. On the plus side, they can rhyme Karma with Armor, which an American band can't get away with. After being a huge fan of these guys for a couple years now, I finally had the opportunity to see them on this North American Tour, but NYC was the closest they came to DC, so I made the trip up. I convinced Alex and Jon to go with me. The venue is right in Times Square, which is pretty amazing on a Saturday night. It's not much bigger than 9:30 in terms of the floor, but then they have a huge back area with seats. I'm not good at estimating seats, but I'd guess a couple thousand were packed in there. It was sold out. Oddly, they ran out of room in the coat checks, which just seems like bad planning for a venue in Northeast after all.
The show took a little while to get going, but around the fourth or fifth song, they did a Middle Eastern flavored song called The Darkness, where they just killed it for what seemed like ten minutes. After that, each song was better than the last, and the sweaty intensity of the show just went through the roof. Even though they don't have a guitarist, they make up for it in terms of rhythm with a DJ scratching around and one of their lead vocalists plays percussion. As for solos, the keyboardist is pretty damn good, but their trumpet players are outta sight. The lead trumpet also sings lead vocals and he blazed on both.
In terms of comparisons, they most reminded my of Ozomatli in terms of their sound and their live show experience. There was a lot of jumping up and down, hand waving, clapping and singing along. The energy was fantastic and no one wanted the show to end. It was good times.
If you're into latin jazzy, reggae, hip-hop influenced, high energy jam band-ish music, definitely check out the Cat Empire. Two Shoes is the albums to start with.
