Summer Has Arrived - The Cats Are In Town

Cat Empire at The Forum

Upcoming events at Forum, The:
» Dead Weather, The - venue, Fri, March 19
» Dead Weather, The - venue, Sat, March 20
» Paul Dempsey - venue, Sat, April 24
» Wilco - venue, Thu, May 6
» Tortoise - venue, Fri, May 7
» Tegan and Sara - venue, Tue, May 11
» Tegan and Sara - venue, Wed, May 12
» Tame Impala - venue, Fri, May 21
News on Cat Empire, The:
» The Cat Empire to play two FREE shows this weekend - February 26, 2009
» The Cat Empire announce new CD/ DVD release, tour dates - January 30, 2009
Album reviews for Cat Empire, The:
» Live on Earth - Cat Empire, The
Interviews with Cat Empire, The:
» Dream Weaver: Felix Riebl (Cat Empire) - September 30, 2008
» The Cat Empire - Sanguine Solitude - October 4, 2007
Live reviews from Forum, The:
» The Polyphonic Spree - February 27, 2010
» Amanda Palmer - February 26, 2010
» Dizzee Rascal - January 28, 2010
Related links:
Friday, December 1 2006 @ Forum, The, Melbourne

Its been a while since I've seen the Cat Empire, and what a welcome return I got, at one point they had 10 people on stage.
Its impossible not to get swept up in the energy that the Cat Empire release, however, there were a few boring people who could do nothing but stand there with there arms crossed. Really, were you that bored?

The crowd were a weird mix I was moving around the venue to see how the audience were reacting, some were dancing there arses off and some look like they would rather be having an ingrown toe nail removed.

Felix, the lead singer had a grin a mile wide, which didn't leave his cheeky face all night.The set list at a Cat Empire gig, really doesn't matter that much its all about improv. For example when they were playing the song 'Sly' it went on for about 10 minutes and turned into a mash up of salsa funk and beats.

The star of tonight's gig, in my opinion, was Ollie McGill the keyboard player. The jams that guy was pulling out were outragous, he was morphing riffs from 'My Guitar Gently Weeps' into Latin funk rock, when he pulled the riff from 'Billie Jean' the crowd went nuts, myself especially. I was singing at the top of my lungs.

Sure, the Forum was hot and sweaty but that's what makes Cat Empire gigs so enjoyable; its one big comunial funk fest.
One of the other highlights of the night was when they pulled one their mates out to play sitar; and man could that dude play, he was fantastic, and then he picked up the guitar and started playing licks that would wake Hendrix up from his grave.
When the gig came to an end it really seemed that the band didn't want to leave and who could blame them?

When the Cat Empire are hot there's no stopping them.

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