Red Riders

Rolling up to the Corner on Saturday night I was greeted with a most unusual sight – a line stretching out the door, around the corner and well up the street behind Melbourne’s fabled home of pub rock. The more cynical of my line-mates cited poor management of the ticketing at the door, but I preferred to think of it as a sign of the health of Australian music health and buzz around the two bands we had come to see.

Finally out of the cold (and fuck me it was freezing), I set about finding a decent spot. I have a theory that no matter where you stand at the Corner your view will be at least partially obscured by that massive pole the goes straight down the middle of the joint. I call it ‘The Corner Hotel Paradox’ and it is the subject of a three-part lecture series that I am presenting next week if anyone is interested. I got over this pretty quickly though and joined in with the high spirits of the young crowd as they waited for the first band.

To make mix things up a bit, ‘Double-headliners’ Red Riders and Dappled Cities Fly had announced that a pre-show coin toss would decide who gets the one hour support slot and who gets the 90 minute headline slot. Team Red Riders came up with the goods tonight, and sent their fellow Sydney-siders into bat first.

Having only heard bits and pieces of Dappled Cities Fly on the radio I was keen to see what all the fuss was about, especially seeing as this was their last Melbourne show of 2007 before relocating to the US. I was very impressed with what I saw, as they put on an extremely enjoyable set of varied, often complex indie rock. Grandeur use of keys added a lusciousness to each song, and by mucking around with tempos and interchanging lead vocalists, they made each song varied and interesting. Comments to the left of me were comparing them to The Killers, while comments to the right found similarities with Augie March. Comments in front of me were largely concerned with the visible g-string of a chick at the bar, which although impressive, is not particularly relevant to this review (however feel free to contact me c/o The Dwarf for a more detailed description).

By the time they announced their final song, Dappled Cities Fly had such a hold of the audience that it seemed many of us had forgotten that they were only the support act. Bang on the scheduled start time of 11:30 (I’m officially naming them ‘Most Punctual Band in Rock’), Red Riders took to the stage.

Good band, Red Riders. I have caught them a few times in support slots for the likes of Little Birdy, Snow Patrol and The Vines, and was keen to see how they went with a longer set. Tighter jeans, bigger hair and more leather proved that they were more style-conscious than Dappled Cities, and they certainly looked more the part of rock stars (except maybe for the lead guitarist who looks like a 10-year old Ben Lee). The general rule of modern rock appears to be if you’re going to wear jeans that tight, then you better have some good tunes to back it up, and fortunately, these guys do. Crowd favorites were the excellent ‘Slide in next to me’ ‘A.S.P.I.R.I.N’ and ‘My love is stronger than your love’, but lesser known tracks like ‘In my sleep’ also received deservedly warm receptions. Vocal duties changed seamlessly between the two guitarists, while the other two band members looked to be having as much fun as we all were. As strong as their set was however, I did find myself thinking that perhaps I would have preferred to see Dappled Cites Fly take the longer set, due to the greater variance of their sound and performance. But I cant complain - the love that both bands had for what they were doing was made very clear throughout the whole night, and infectiously transferred to the crowd. Also made clear was the love between the two bands themselves, with inter-band introductions, song dedications and man-cuddles aplenty. Surprisingly however, my brilliantly timed call of ‘Get a room!’ after the Red Riders dedicated a third song in a row to their support band failed to the reception I was hoping for. Tough crowd.

As enjoyable as each of the two individual sets were, the highlight of the night was undoubtedly the encore, which saw both bands return to the stage – nine members in total – for a ball-tearing cover of November Rain. Cue 10 minutes of soaring riffs, over-the-top sing-along choruses and, yes, even a few lighters going up in the crowd. Brilliant.

There was a smile on every face in the house when they finally wrapped up their epic finale and waved good night to Melbourne– the Red Riders to return soon, Dappled Cities not for some time.

Share this review on Facebook