Bluesy-indie band Cold War Kids hit Melbourne this week as part of their Australian tour surrounding the Playground Weekender Festival, and to be frank, if you weren’t there, you weren’t missing much.
As a huge, genuine and bona-fide Cold War Kids fan, I was hugely, genuinely and bona fide-pumped for this show, like I had been the two previous times I had been a part of their audience.Unlike the two previous times, however, this show seemed flat. It wasn’t just the band, it was the audience. It was as if nobody really wanted to be there.
Even songs like ‘Hang Me Up To Dry’, ‘Saint John’ and the new single ‘Something Is Not Right With Me’ roused little more than a half-arsed cheer from a crowd more interested in chatting to the person next to them than listening to the band.
While Nathan Willet’s vocals were on fire, the rest of the band’s physical actions mirrored that of their plodding sound. They might’ve been note perfect, but they had the enthusiasm of a gnat.
Then again, they didn’t exactly have the wildest audience to feed off - a key feature in their spectacular performance at Splendour in the Grass in 2008.
