The Middle East
I'll be honest and say i didn't know much about this Townsville band before heading out to see them last night. After hearing a lot of hype I quickly checked out their myspace before heading out, saw the 300, 000+ views and a mention of a Pitchfork review and left the house with a picture in my mind of a well established and highly successful band. To my surprise though on arriving at the Princess Theater i discovered i had them all wrong. The Middle East are really just in their infancy, but have enjoyed an amazing amount of success based upon the strength of their single release to date, the EP 'The Recordings of the Middle East'. I wondered at first if the hype was well founded while walking into the all-ages gig - seeing 2/3 of the crowd seated and the church posters on the walls(a venue thing i'm guessing)...but despite some small hiccups i'll discuss below these guys blew me away with both talent and potential. They were great to watch and left me more eager for an album than any band has left me in a long time.
The 7 strong cast must have rolled out 15-20 different instruments throughout the set, ranging from the standard guitars (playing from 1-4 at any one time) to mandolins, banjos, tambourines, rain sticks, keyboards, electronic synths, harmonicas and more. It was obvious that each player was accomplished in their own right, despite the fact that the two frontmen held most of the stage presence for the entire band. There were tight jeans and country-boy clothes everywhere, the bassist sporting a large akubra with all the trimmings to make you think you were watching a country show, until your eyes spanned to the edges and saw the electronic equipment, the trumpet and xylophone. The majority of their songs were downtempo, sometimes leaving you with a thrist for something just a little more upbeat (this was true especially towards the end) but each song commanded deep concentration from the crowd, rarely broken in the spaces between songs. These gaps at times stretched on like uncomfortable silences at a dinner party though - they didn't seem quite comfortable in the spotlight yet and maintained a minimal amount of crowd interaction except for their actual playing. I know there's a fine line between to much chat and too little, but when there's absolutely none coupled with amazingly sentimental songs, it left at times a slightly dry feeling to the experience.
Despite several relatively obvious technical glitches and some on stage stumbling as they played new songs though, the layers of melody intertwined beautifully with all 4 singers showcasing individual and highly harmonious voices. Each song was a real team effort, seeing instruments change hands frequently and lead singers become back-up singers until everything got shaken up all over again. Each song had everyone spellbound, combining all the good elements of alt-country, folk music and vague samplings of indie rock vibes coursing underneath lyrics that went deep into your reflective center, tackling deep issues in a heart touching way that never sounded cliche but just sounded perfect. 'The Darkest Side' appeared early without fanfare but the highpoint of the night was definitely when they played 'Blood' with it's the Arcade Fire-ish outro which gave everyone the body and intensity they'd been waiting for. I would wait in line for hours for a chance to see these guys play again and cannot wait to see what practice and experience breeds. I think youth here is a blessing for a band that already shows so much depth and heart.
Buy the 'Recordings of the Middle East' EP here
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