Live Review: San Cisco, Crooked Colours, Methyl Ethel

Perth trio, Methyl Ethel take to the stage at 8.30pm without a word, to fill the mostly empty room with their reverb-ridden indie psych pop. The majority of punters are yet to arrive or are downstairs at the Coolangatta Hotel’s main bar, leaving the cavernous upstairs venue vacant in anticipation. The main event, San Cisco are not due on stage until 10.30pm and for the long-haired alternative, indie, hipster crowd that’s slowly trickling in, there’s much drinking to be done. Singer Jake Webb seems not to notice the sparse crowd as he delivers his high-register vocal as if in a shamanic trance.

Crooked Colours illuminate the stage with their heavy electro-indie beats. The room is nearly full now and the array of interesting hats worn by audience members grows curiouser and curiouser. Greasy locks are slung about and heads bob to the flashing lights and pulsing crooked synths. A cover of MGMT’s Electric Feel goes down an electro-storm. The Colours leave the stage after closing with the cautionary Come Down. The party is in full swing and the message, one fears, falls on deaf ears. 

A stumbling casualty of booze blunders into the ladies’ toilets to vomit while a scruffy, skanking ne’er-do-well is dragged from the dance floor by a hotel henchman. San Cisco must take to the stage soon lest their audience fail to remain upright long enough to see them. They burst onto the brightly lit stage, all bouncy indie pop and painstakingly dishevelled hair. Alas it’s too late for one young fan who lies prostrate in the centre of the floor and is plucked by staff and led out onto the balcony for a sip of water and a sit down. A glimpse of his vacant, ashen face triggers concern that this may not be adequate remedy. 

San Cisco’s chiming guitars and infectious rhythms grant them absolute power over the sweaty, stinking mosh pit. Drummer Scarlett Stevens takes the lead vocal on Magic and the mellow Snow builds to an epic wall of sound. Jordi Davieson appears alone for the encore and sings Skool, a love song from his high school days. The band rejoins him for the rapturous Fred Astaire, which whips the crowd into a final frenzy before being left in the care of the Coolangatta Hotel management, taxi service or QLD police.