The Grates

Patience Hodgson, Alana Skyring and John Patterson, collectively better known as The Grates, take the stage in front of a very cold, very sober, very impatient crowd early on a Thursday night. But they may as well have been taking the stage in front of a revved up pub crowd full of liquor and gusto on a Saturday night, the way they came out blazing and proceeded to deliver a performance that is usually only inspired by a mass of sweaty bodies and mass excitement in the air, as opposed to the shivers and grumbles from the crowd in Ormond Hall last Thursday.

Right from the get go, Patience and her cheery faced cohorts are brimming with exuberance, looking really comfortable and very much seem at home on the stage with one another, producing a brilliant sound. Whilst Alana, John and their fourth touring member (whose name I must admit I am unfamiliar with) have become a very tight unit, providing booty-shaking beats and noisy riffs, Patience Hodgson seems to have risen and risen over the years to a whole new level of performer. She has come along way both as vocalist and as entertainer since the release of their now six year old self titled EP.

Bouncing from one foot to another, throwing herself across the stage with reckless abandon and not shying away from a little high leg kick action, Patience is a relentless candy ball of sweetness and light. Playful banter, air kisses and song dedications to random audience members – She clearly has them wrapped around her fingers.

They charge through a handful of crowd favourites and manage to turn a slightly grumbly crowd into a smiling bouncing happy mob. Patience announces to the crowd that they would be privy to some songs from the forthcoming album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won. The new material is a little heavier and both music and lyrics show a sense of maturity and growth since their debut record Gravity Won't Get You High. The crowd is curious and the songs receive heart felt applause and you just know that by the time they take this sophomore release on the road, the kids will have learned all the words and know all the hand claps. This is evidenced when, towards the end of the night, they play the new single Burning Bridges (already receiving a fair whack of airtime on Triple J), and the crowd goes bananas for it.

But, like is so often the case, it is the older, more familiar material that gets the biggest cheers. Songs like 19-20-20, Trampoline and Lies Are Much More Fun have the crowd dancing so hard the large chilly hall feels positively toasty. And by the time they wrap up the encore with massive grins on their faces and Inside Out ringing in our ears, Patience crowd surfs her way to the back of the room and we all have grins plastered on our faces too.

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