Miami Horror

Another scorching Friday night at the Corner Hotel that was only getting sweatier with the hot line-up of electro infused rock on the billing. Walking into the band room my ears were under attack from the doof doof overload being cranked out by the listless DJ who was playing between bands. His mixing was so bland, not even the heavily intoxicated members of the audience were up and dancing. It was far more amusing seeing a guy dry hump his woman at the bar as they whinged about the bad muzak between drinks.

Fortunately The Dirty Secrets quickly took to the stage and washed away the badness with a blistering live set. I saw these guys play at Ding Dong a few years back and their new wave synthesiser rock was even better this time around. Front man Jarrah McCleary owned the stage with his wild dancing - jumping on his keyboard stand then up onto the bass drum, wrapping the mic lead around his neck with a little bit of grinding on his fellow band members. Their music was pure fun and highly entertaining.

The crowd lapped them up as they pumped out track after track of synth heavy rock. Jarrah played up to the audience, shaking hands with the very excited people in the front row, posing for the photographers and constantly shaking his arse. He reminded me of a red haired Robert Smith as he sat cross legged on the floor, bathed in red light doing a lot of high pitched wailing toward the end of their set. The entire band were dancing around and obviously enjoying themselves, as was everyone in the packed out band room. Keep an eye out for The Dirty Secrets, they put on one hell of a show and hopefully they’ll be sticking around for some time to come.

The excitement was palpable as the curtains opened and the fans went nuts as Miami Horror launched into their opening song. The boys were immaculately well presented and the singer is one of the best white boy dancers I have ever seen. The man was sex on legs as he grooved along to the synth- laden guitar goodness. For a band whose music screams fun, they were quite serious onstage. The singer barely cracked a smile as he amped up the crowd saying; "you guys are crazy. You should jump up and down. Don’t push the people in the front row, let the ladies have some room."

They experienced a few technical difficulties throughout their set and launched into an impromptu version of Outkast’s Hey Ya, whilst waiting for the equipment to be fixed. The crowd went absolutely mental when the boys broke out the cow bells and some unlucky punters down the front copped a boot in the face from the singer because they dared to touch his mic stand. Way to show love to your fans. The violence was rife with crowd surfers everywhere as the entire sold out crowd attempted to push their way into the front of the band room to get a piece of Miami Horror (including their drummer‘s mother who was dancing alongside me in the front row and snapping pictures of her son at work).

The band completely ignored the adoration of the crowd and ploughed through a killer set which included a fantastic cover of Datarock’s Fa Fa Fa and some mad dancing to their radio hit Sometimes before exiting the stage to prepare for their encore. More technical difficulties in the shape of a malfunctioning laptop led to the singer having a hissy fit, yelling ‘fuck it’ and smashing his guitar on the stage before storming off, only to return minutes later to play one final song and thanking the audience for coming. In spite of their cool disposition, Miami Horror put on a phenomenal live show that was heightened by the moving image display projected onto the rear wall of the stage.

Whilst their singer appears to have Tourette’s syndrome, his crazy antics made for entertaining viewing and their sweaty synthesiser dance-rock was enjoyed by everybody there. Well done, Miami Horror, your set with the full band was fantastic. A warning note to people intent on seeing this band play - do not touch the boys or their equipment unless you wish to be kicked in the head.

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