The Naked and Famous / Vancouver Sleep Clinic

Review by: Brendan Dousi

There are certain elements of a live gig that tend to nag on you and can possibly seep in an effect your experience. The distractingly large number of loose-fitting beanies, the guy exactly the same height as you who decided to stand directly in front of you, the people behind you that decide that a gig they paid to get into was the perfect place to loudly catch up the entire night and those special people who take pictures and video of the stage with their smart phones, pictures and video you know will only be seen later as indiscernible globs of coloured light. Though, if a gig is truly successful, none of this matters. You can exorcise all of these issues from your mind and focus on the one thing that matters; the music. As luck would have it, The Naked and Famous was one of those gigs.

Around 8:30pm Hi-Fi in West End was about half capacity, blissful personal space still existed and if anything the air conditioning was a little too chilly. Vancouver Sleep Clinic is the opening act, a group of young boys barely out of High School brought into the spotlight last year through Triple J Unearthed. A group of young men with an unprecedented mastery over their instruments, I had a hard time believe people who looked like they’d barely breached puberty could be so talented. They had a wonderful, ambient and ethereal sound that would feel perfectly at home on any movie soundtrack. While the tracks they played were packed with emotion, the lyrics were often never quite clear, with the songs being the type you would simply let wash over you rather than sing along to. This seems to be their main problem; all their songs have that same ambient quality that lack ‘oomph’ you look for in a leading act. Ultimately it is headphone music, serene and beautiful easy listening to get your day off to a good start.

I have no doubt they will find their ‘wow’ factor someday soon, these boys are talented and very young, no doubt with a lot of room to grow and potential to fulfil. Perhaps the trick is to write a song that doesn’t make you yawn in the middle of playing it. I’m looking at you Drummer! It’s hard to not forgive them though as they switch seamlessly between instruments that they play so damn well. It also helps that the lead punctuates each piece with a quick ‘Thank You’ every time without fail. Simply adorable.

9:45pm rolls up; the personal space has evaporated, things are more sweaty than chilly now and that woman taking flash photography with her Nikon Coolpix has disappeared, further supporting your theory that she was one of the opening act’s Mums. The cool, static blue lighting from Vancouver Sleep Clinic has been replaced with erratic, seizure inducing flashes and bright colours. The crowd starts to scream. It’s The Naked and Famous time. The guys and gals on stage are pure professionals, opening the show with flair. High energy, pure sound, thumping bass fun that sounds exactly like it’s recorded version, only more awesome. The lead vocalist, Alisa Xayalith, was fantastic, interacting with the audience and providing a beautiful and crisp sound while championing away enthusiastically at her keyboard. Her pristine vocals provided the centrepiece but were often counter-balanced by the harsher masculine vocals of lead guitarist Thom Powers, who for the record was rocking his fringe like he’d been taking lessons from Willow Smith herself. The two worked well together, Powers a great sidekick to Alisa who kept up the energy in the room, often asking for audience participation in the singing of certain songs, in particular their song “Rolling Waves” where Alisa taught the audience the chorus and got them to sing along.

The set list flowed seamlessly along, certain songs such as “Punching in a Dream” receiving screams of enthusiasm from the crowd at hearing the first chords. It was an impressive, professional and passionate performance from a group of talented artists. One made even more impressive by the revelation that Alisa actually had a cold that she was singing through, something that no one with human ears would have been able to discern at all. The concert got to its end and the audience screamed for more, they knew there was one major song missing from the performance. Milking the applause, The Naked and Famous came out for their encore to screams and applause from the small yet loyal group of fans. It was a perfect end to an impressive show, playing possibly their most well-known track, “Young Blood” as a finale. Ultimately a very impressive show, a band that you definitely should see live if you are a fan of their music, or even just after a fun, fulfilling live music experience.