Faker

Although undercolours had some obvious potential they’re still a band in its infancy. Their instrumental music was enough to keep someone interested but the lyrics in some songs were predictable. Despite sound checking there were still problems that needed to be straightened out with the bands sound engineers. Vocals could also do with more polishing. With more live shows under their belt and some honest feedback from their friends, family and people in the industry the band will blossom into an act to be remembered.

Loon Lake looked stiff when they first appeared on stage, in time this melted away and they became more confident, corresponding well with their music becoming more complex and interesting to listen to, different sounds being experimented with. Although their instrumentals were stimulating, vocals were another matter with many being hard to make out, vocals needed more polishing as well as the sound engineering for the second band being worse than the first. All of these things, plus a lack of banter made it hard for the audience to connect with the band.

Dark blankets the Corner as choice audio taken from 1985 film The Goonies plays over the loud speakers to an excited crowd. “Hello.” Fakerfront man Nathan Hudson greets his audience simply. Playing many oldies and a few newies Hudson, ever the showman was throwing himself around the stage, trying to engage individual punters along the way with a look or a smile, and finally by openly inviting them to dance with him. Unfortunately for him the crowd (oddly – for a Melbourne show) was not giving as good as it got. One felt bad for the band who were obviously giving so much to an awesome live performance for a crowd who reacted much like you’d expect a dead fish to. The only real downside to the bands performance was Hudson not having big enough lungs to throw himself around and sing every lyric clearly. This made singing along to old favourites hard for punters. When it came time to cheer for an encore punters were slow to react, the band must have been waiting eagerly back stage, finally when it was clear that they were wanted they came back, “We were hoping you’d ask us to come back on…” Hudson trailed off. After a three year absence behind them, one hopes Faker decide to visit Melbourne with more regularity in the future and that our crowds wake up from their deep slumber and get their dancing shoes on!

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