Kid Sam

The Alley Cat is filled with an incongruously rowdy crowd for this evening’s introspective, shoe-gazing line-up. The artists on the tiny stage, facing headlong into the bar, stand little chance when noisy punters congregate for their next round.

First up, Transcription of Organ Music. Pitched against a backdrop of loud, oblivious banter from the audience, this Hobart based three-piece seem to offer variations on the one song for what feels like a significantly long time.

When Seagull takes the stage (tonight's line-up is Chris Bolton plus Kid Sam), things seem a little more promising. Until, that is, one song duly prompts a voice from the crowd to shout, “Can you not be so physically emotional?” That pretty much says it all.

When ‘tall cousins’ Kieran Ryan and Kishore Ryan take to the stage as Kid Sam, their sophisticated brand of melancholy immediately registers; their poetic visions are immediately conveyed.

With more than a hint of Thom Yorke in his vocals, Kieran Ryan holds his own against the incorrigible crowd. It isn’t until the distinctive kick-drum and inverted-wok-cum-cowbell intro of ‘Down to the Cemetery’ that the audience seem to remember why they came in the first place and proceed to ‘tear up’ the dance floor with much enthusiasm.

Tonight’s standout number, the atmospheric epic ‘Mirror Drawings,’ transcends all space and time, distracting me from the crowd for its duration.

Lyrically at his best, Kieran Ryan sings with haunting precision: “I used to think I was a solo pilot / Set to fly across the sea alone / But there’s a scar running down my ribcage / Where you were cut from me so long ago.” Kieran’s shimmering guitar riff set to Kishore’s palpitating beat generates a mysterious, stirring piece reminiscent of Twin Peaks.

Nominated for a J Award and the Australian Music Prize, Kid Sam are clearly making waves.

But this evening at The Alley Cat, it is frustrating to see the duo struggle to be heard above the crowd in their more introspective, unique moments.

Tonight’s penultimate number, ‘Close Your Eyes and it All Goes Black,’ reveals something ghostly and painfully close to home as Kieran softly sings, “Who will remember us, who will remember us, when those who remember us go?”

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