Seated gigs ... are they ever a good thing? Discuss. How often have you craned from a dress circle, dying to be down in the pit? Or wriggled in the middle of the stalls, wishing they could be ripped out entirely?
Having the good fortune to see Sydney band the Preatures twice in as many weeks (and states) offered me a comparative study of the issue. On paper, the group’s headline date at Sydney Opera House for Vivid Live was a bigger deal than a chilly Friday night at Hobart Odeon. But an act that seemed solidly three star on their home patch were joyous in Tasmania.
Of course, the enthusiastic opening night crowd of Dark Mofo helped to boost proceedings. This annual Mona-sponsored celebration of the winter solstice usually delights in the left-field: the 2015 line-up includes Gareth Liddiard, King Dude and Antony Hegarty. The Preatures are positively poppy by comparison.
But, as it turned out, the ever tight five-piece, led by singer and keyboardist Isabella Manfredi, matched the mood. More of a vocal chameleon live than on record, Manfredi was by turns sugar sweet and Joan Jettish at the mic, sometimes both, as on Better Than It Ever Could Be. We’d not have known she spent half the day at Royal Hobart hospital having a piece of plastic removed from her eye if she hadn’t told us why she was wearing sunnies. Inside. In June. In Tasmania. But doctor’s orders.
“I’m going to put these glasses on and pretend I’m really cool,” she said, summing up the Preatures’ appeal in one go. Because they aren’t really. Cool, that is. Not in that posturing, hipster kind of way. And because they are happy to be seen having a good time, their audience can too, given half the chance to stand up and dance.
Hobart’s “feral” fans – Manfredi’s word, not mine – were rewarded for their high energy with a good smattering from current album Blue Planet Eyes, plus the two true Aussie covers that have become a staple of the current tour: Boys in Town by Divinyls and the Angels’ Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?. The contrast with the muted reception these got in Sydney was marked. Love was in the air.
Mona founder David Walsh smooched his wife somewhere in the crowd while a young gent turned to his pixie-cropped companion to say: “You’re the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen.” As the band launched into the intro of their biggest and most international hit, Is This How You Feel?, Hobart raised its arms. The floor, sticky with beer below our feet, bounced. And so did our hearts.
