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Writer's pictureAmy Hathaway
Mar 1, 2017

Never Start - Middle Kids


The uni break is starting to catch up on me & between work/rest I've managed to catch myself the flu! It was bound to happen soon enough as the weather hasn't been the greatest & we are now officially in Autumn!! Sad to see that Summer is leaving us & soon enough we'll be donning out ankle boots & cardigans & I'll admit I'm a little sad to leave Summer as every year I dream of being this ultimate beach bum but I'm secretly excited to get cool & snuggly again. The uni break so far has been absolutely lovely & I've tried not to overdo it, so there's been many early nights & DVDs in bed. Understandably there's so much that is potentially placed on hold during the busy semesters but the last thing you want to do is to exhaust yourself still by the time you head back to uni!

Well after all these many past weeks of dreaming up gigs last week I finally got a chance to see some live music! Wednesday night I managed to score two tickets to an exclusively secret gig with only 100 capacity to see Dappled Cities. I can now unveil the location of gig was at the Chippendale "Chippo" hotel. Potentially being a smaller gig Dappled Cities were releasing some new tracks "Stonemen" & also announced their 5th album "IIIII" which should be released on the 5th May this year. Leia & myself got to the gig just before it was about to start & already within 5 minutes recognised a few slightly older faces, after seeing Dappled Cities a good few times over the years walking into the room felt like being in a room with family. You can tell in the air that you were in the room with solid Dappled Cities fans; Leia & I both knew we were in for a treat. After both being fans for over a decade, we were also finally seeing a Dappled Cities gig together.

Dappled Cities are just one of those underrated but most fun bands in Sydney, hard to believe but I feel with some gigs/artists nowadays that the audience don't feel keen enough to dance & dance like no one is watching. I've always felt comfortable at Dappled Cities gigs to shimmy my shoulders, sway my arms about & tap my feet. They played for a good hour & mixed newer tracks with older ones to the delight of the crowd. They ended the show with an earth shattering version of "Run with the Wind" where for a good few seconds I thought Dave was going to stab the ceiling with his guitar. The newer tracks they played gave off a very Tame Impala vibe, which is an interesting direction for Dappled & I look forward to the new album & hopefully new tour when they release it.

Then on Saturday night I went & saw Porter Robinson & Madeon at the Hordern Pavilion with my mate Orton. There were two support acts Elk Road & Lido before Porter & Madeon got on stage. Their set started at 9:45pm & we didn't leave the Hordern till at least 11pm so it was a substantially sized gig. We managed to squeeze ourselves into the mosh, probably about 30 rows from the front. For an all ages gig there was actually quite a number of tall people. But you could feel the excitement in the air of what masterpieces were soon to come.

Porter Robinson & Madeon walked out on stage armed with only two keyboard pods on either side of the stage from our view we guessed that they would proceed with a game of musical pong. They debuted the set with their one & only collaborated track "Shelter" & the whole of the Hordern Pavillion lost their shit. Unsure of how the gig was going to go, they actually magically teamed up each of their tracks from Porter Robinson's "Worlds" album & Madeon's "Adventure" album & mashed up each track with each others. For example "Pop Culture VS Language" & "Imperium VS Divinity". They even took turns of singing each others tracks & it everything just blended so well. They ended the show & the crowd were wanting more the minute that they left the stage. Literally for at least 10minutes Porter & Madeon had the crowd like putty in their hands chanting "one more song! one more song!" then finally they came back on stage with just one smaller keyboard & a microphone. With Madeon singing they sung "Language" & then ended the show with a stripped back version of "Shelter". Truly amazing!

This week's track is from an uprising band from Sydney who only in mid-Februarymade it from Triple J Unearthed onto The Conan show in the US. Watch this space they are a band to watch out for! Wrap your eyes & ears around it below:

Middle Kids are an Indie Pop Rock band from Sydney consisting of Tim (Multi-Instrumentalist/Producer), Hannah (Vocalist/Guitarist) & Harry (Drummer). Their first track "Edge of Town" was uploaded to Triple J's Unearthed website in May last year & pretty much since then the interest towards the band started building almost immediately, here in Australia & across the seas.

As one of the major highlights from "BIGSOUND 2016", it was most likely through Jim Pitt (Conan O'Brien's booker, as a conference guest) how Middle Kids have skyrocketed to fame in the US. Their most recent single "Never Start" which was only released in the past month has recently become a favourite of mine. Their other tracks "Fire in Your Eyes", "Your Love" & "Old River" have also been really good & are part of their Middle Kids EP release this year. Middle Kids are also signed with both UK part/US Label "Domino Records" & "EMI Music Australia". They have been titled as a band to watch this year so look out!!

All of this time There's been no change 'Cos you've got no heart And I've got no brain But I know, I know, I know You like to learn the hard way You can be the self-appointed Sitting in your chair And I'll be your tornado baby Twisting in the air But I don't know how long I'll be here And I'm not trying to start a fight here But it's building up inside, yeah And you don't even know I'm not saying pick a side I'm just trying to do it right Even though I know I know I won't

Hope that you all have a fabulous week!

Cheers Amy

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