LITTLE RED live review

Little Red have been dominating the airwaves lately with their single 'Rock It'. But did they rock the Metro when they came to Sydney this month? Find out in this brand, spanking new live review. Fresh from the pages of your friendly neighbourhood Brag magazine...

Tonight’s bill is just made for a Friday. It presents three bands determined to make you shake your body from weekday drudgery into weekend celebration.

Appropriately (given tonight’s headliners), singer-songwriter Kimbra shimmies onto stage wearing a little red dress and a little red smile. Oh, and a big, BIG voice. By using a loop pedal, she manages the neat trick of becoming her own backing chorus. This makes her vocals cascade over the freaky dance-pop tunes played by her backing band (four guys, all dressed in braces and all camp as a row of tents). We will hear more from this girl. Of that I have no doubt.

From the moment Sparkadia arrive, you know they mean business. Their musicianship is as sharp as their clothes (all dressed head to toe in black) and they speed through their set at an incredible rate. Sporting a remarkable quiff and jacket combo, lead singer Alex Burnett is aiming to look like a young Johnny Cash, but ends up looking more like 1980s fop Rick Astley. And, alarmingly, new song ‘China’ actually sounds like something Astley might have sung. It’s power balladry at its absolute worst. If this was delivered with a knowing wink – a smirk even – then you could laugh it off. But Sparkadia actually mean this.

From opener ‘Morning Light’ to closer ‘Jealousy’, they remain po-faced and serious. But guess what? The crowd absolutely adores them. There is dancing and jumping and screaming and whooping throughout, and ear bursting applause at the end. Go figure.

Following Sparkadia’s well-drilled approach, Little Red appear a bit ramshackle. The vocals are occasionally lost in the mix, and early technical problems culminate in a blown amp. Dominic Byrne also appears to have forgotten his stage outfit. The rest of the band are resplendent in collared shirts, bowties, waistcoats and hats while his skinny frame is decorated with nothing but scruffy ripped jeans and an over-sized white t’shirt.

Despite (or perhaps because of) all this, Little Red’s performance has warmth and humanity. They’re unfussy, they’re geeky and they can’t dance for shit – but their passion for their music is obvious. Tom Hartney croons with the best of them during ‘Place Called Love’, Quang Dinh pines and shines in the loser anthem ‘In My Bed’ while Dominic Byrne‘s dancing is heroically unco during ‘Slow Motion’. And the longer they go, the more they win the audience over. The crowd dances so hard during ‘Rock It’ that the room actually shakes and, after ‘Coca Cola’, the crowd doesn’t cheer – they roar. Little Red welcome the weekend in thrilling, ragged, glorious style.

By Andy McLean. Copyright held by author.

First published in The Brag, Sydney, October 2010.