Live Review: Oh Mercy, High-Tails, Big White

Back on the AMP Award nomination list alongside the likes of Courtney Barnett, Marlon Williams, Hermitude and Royal Headache, Oh Mercy finally gave Sydney its own in-the-flesh taste of new album When We Talk About Love. Written in the US, with Oh Mercy's frontman Alex Gow in confessional mode, the album's light and airy, dreamy melodies were filled out by the six-piece crammed onto the Oxford Art Factory stage.  

Sydney musician Nick Griffith pulled double duty with his bands Big White and High-Tails both supporting. While Big White offered up jangly guitars and sunshine in a melody, High-Tails kicked it up a notch, drifting into fuzzy indie guitar-pop territory. With three singers taking turns across the front, Big White would be perfectly placed to throw a lot more harmonies at their audience and really give them something to revel in. High-Tails played a more hit-and-miss set. Their cover of ABBA's The Winner Takes It All was more amusing than poignant but when everything came together their little indie idiosyncrasies and off-kilter guitars really hit the spot.

Gow's customary, wryly self-deprecating banter ("This song is called All Roads Lead To You. It was an optimistic song that turned out to be incorrect") introduced Oh Mercy's tender, ambitious indie-pop. Despite some sound issues that Gow patiently talked through with his man behind the desk, the band gave plenty of aching space and just the right amount of sparkle to songs such as Sandy and I Don't Really Want To Know. Like the violin drifting through everything, Gow's vocals sat low in the mix, never letting them take too much away from the intricate melodies. Gow knows what he's good at and it is definitely this.