Live Review: Vintage Trouble

If only all shows were as much fun as that of LA four-piece, Vintage Trouble. After the rave reviews that followed their Bluesfest performance, anticipation for this show was running high. The band played to a packed house that was determined to have a good time, with cheesy grins spotted throughout the house long before the lights went down.

Frontman Ty Taylor and the equally sartorially splendid band members took the stage and cranked out a 90-minute set that got the sing-alongs, clap-alongs and call-and-responses going from the opening number, High Times (They Are Coming). 

This is a band that knows how to lead an audience and is not afraid to wear its heart — and its influences — on its sleeve. The intoxicating blend of blues, stomp, pure '50s rock'n'roll — and the seamless integration of stand-out solos — ebbed and flowed as the set mixed hard, driving rhythms with the odd anguished lament.

"There are plenty of love songs out there about hearts and flowers, and birds flying around your head and all of that Disney shit," Taylor said. "This is not one of them." He wasn't kidding, delving into the pain that accompanies being punished by your lover for another's wrongs on Another Man's Words.

Taylor is an dynamic presence onstage, pin-wheeling, jumping and showing the punters on the dancefloor how to loosen up and get into the groove. While there weren't a lot of newly minted gig-goers in the crowd, the muscle memory kicked in to get the crowd-surfing frontman back on stage without a slip.

Highlight numbers included Nobody Told Me, Total Strangers and show closer Strike Your Light. The band did as promised and manned the merch table signing anything and everything thrust before them, even sneaking kisses and posing for selfies that no doubt are now the highlight of fans' feeds.

There is no doubt this band is made for the enormo-dome. Where their skill really came to the fore is in the way they have translated their act for an intimate venue like The Factory. The best part for those of us catching this gig is being able to boast that we were there.

Double five stars.