The Cat Empire/ New White Sneakers
Thebarton Theatre
Sat 12 Jan


Due to unfortunate circumstances, I wasn't able to enter the venue to catch most of eight piece New White Sneakers' performance in support of one of their most obvious influences, The Cat Empire. But after witnessing the last two numbers, I will say that both myself, and the massive throng already crammed up near the stage were suitably impressed and driven to sway along to this local band and the big sound that they're able to produce. Headed by one of Adelaide's best known soul/Rn'B vocalists, Brian Ruiz, as well as another vocalist adding hip-hop rhymes, NWS managed to smoothly combine many different genres backed by a plethora of guitars, horns and percussion. One can certainly recommend them as an easy fix for anyone who loves the style of music that was set on the agenda this night.

Having actually witnessed The Cat Empire's very first show here in Adelaide at The Famous Spiegeltent many Fringe Festival's ago, as well as many times since, I've often walked away thinking that surely this band have come to a peak in that they've always been absolutely friggin' amazing! After this show I'm now going to give up on trying to predict where their true limitations lie, because somehow I should've learnt that I really don't think we've seen the best of them yet. And the thought of that is really scary.

Opening tonight with Fishies off their latest album, 'So Many Nights', they continued on with another new track, the Middle Eastern-influenced, Darkness, before moving onto long time crowd favourite, How To Explain?. From hereon the night duly alternated between old (Two Shoes, The Chariot, In My Pocket) and new (Voodoo Cowboy, Sunny Moon, No Longer There) numbers taking place alongside each other with exacting effect.

This incredible band made the crowd move as one - even those at the back of the venue shifted along in their seats as the flow of movement continued on from the floor. Utilising very basic lighting, including strings of naked globes hung over the crowd, it really was just about the music, which I thought on the whole took on a more straight rock feel than usual; and as the crowd heated up from all the dancing, three female friends near us even chose to strip down to their bras in order to keep up the pace. The Thebarton Theatre is an ideal place for The Cat Empire as it still lends a certain communal atmosphere to the event, but after completely selling out two shows with two solid hours of music played each night and still leaving people wanting more, maybe they should even consider taking up a residency there.

Steve Jones