Getting Their Heads Straight - Boys Night Out

I'm a little biased when it comes to Boys Night Out. They rate as one of my favourite bands right now. So heading to their first ever Sydney show had me asking so many questions. What should I expect from this Canadian five-piece? Would the incredible vocal talent of lead singer Connor Lovat-Fraser be the same live? Honestly, I had no idea and that was perhaps a good thing.

I was a little shocked when I arrived at the Manning Bar. The venue was largely empty. This ended up working in our favour. Expecting the venue to be packed out to its usual capacity, I had planned to spend the night quietly observing from the side or back. I managed to stay there through the first support act, local Kiai Academy. An adequate, but not particularly original, punk act, they performed well, but failed, unlike the second support act, to intrigue me or win me over.

The Mission in Motion came next. Their reputation for catchy pop-rock and a hard work ethic preceded them, with at least half the floor of the Manning Bar filling up. Even I moved forward, closer to the stage (an act that would ultimately make my night). Every praise this band has received, they deserve. They performed most of the songs from the EP they released earlier this year (It's called The Window and is remarkably good) creating an incredibly tight set that was emphasised by the onstage charisma of their lead singer. Mission had everyone on the floor moving, dancing and singing along in no time at all.

But even then, it was obvious when Boys Night Out hit the stage that this was the band everyone had come to see. Before the set began, we had all moved up to the stage. No I don't mean up to the barrier, because there was no barrier at the Manning Bar that night. This meant that for at least half of the set, I had singer Connor about ten centimeters from my face screaming into a microphone and clearly demonstrating to everyone that yes, he definitely could produce the same incredible vocal performance live that he has done on all three of the band's prior releases.

The band opened with the first two tracks from their second release, Trainwreck, and from the very beginning I was in awe of the talent that was being displayed on that stage. As I stood with my friends, danced and screamed along to the lyrics, I was particularly struck by the skills that guitarist Jeff Davis possessed. He flawlessly pulled pulled off all of the licks and most importantly looked like he was having fun.

In fact, the whole band appeared to be thoroughly enjoying themselves! Apparently the Sydney audience gave a much warmer reception than that which they experienced at their previous performance in Brisbane. Perhaps this was merely playing to the crowd, but there appeared to be some sincerity when Connor said this. It could have been because the audience were really responsive to everything the band played and every word that came out of Connor's mouth: everyone laughed when he paid out some girl in the crowd for texting on her phone during one on of their songs.

A good combination of songs was played from across the band's three album discography, though the bulk of the material was from Trainwreck and the newer self-titled album. 'Medicating' (from Trainwreck) was perhaps the standout song of the night: as one of my favourite songs of theirs it was gratifying to see it go absolutely off live. The audience was also given the option of encore or no encore, and surprisingly chose no encore. It made the set flow better and kept the energy of the band and the audience high right through until the end of the last song.

By their own admission, Boys Night Out are "a bunch of lazy Canadians". I don't know them off the stage, but they certainly were not slack while they were on it. Everyone worked hard, and everyone entertained. This was one of the most exciting, fun and impressive gigs I have been to all year.

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