I think the Cat Empire may well be one of the best live bands in Melbourne. Every single member of the band is so incredibly proficient at their instruments and the results are so tight and irrepressibly danceable that it’s impossible to catch the vibe of the group in a studio situation. Half of the glory is the seamless segues, whether it’s into a TV theme turned into walls of crashing sound or a gentle transition from The Chariot into Harry performing a soulful “Hotel California” in French.
The show, the last for the season, featured two guests, Norman [last name to be confirmed] on a wicked blues guitar and Bob Valentine leading the crowd in a singalong of “Lean on Me”.
What stands out more than anything is the variety and talent: both in improvisation and response, shifts in timing, flamenco trumpet, freestyle solos, dub-influenced hip-hop and scratch into the carnival chaos of Eastern European tunes and straight back into ska, followed by rock’n’roll piano to rival Jerry Lee and a sliding blues groove.
Highlights from tonight’s gig included “The Chariot” as a second encore, “The Wine Song” as the beginning of the first encore and old favourites early in the show like “How to Explain” which starts with a mournful trumpet solo and ends in a crescendo of joy (“music is the language of us all…”). It’s one of the ones that, at 3:36 on the album, seems like a brief footnote to popular singles like “Hello Hello” but in concert run to much longer as the Empire Horns come in and Felix and Jumps move their hips in a way calculated to make every woman in the room swoon.
A superb night, topped off by an almost empty Punt Rd with subtle_eye and I both on Vespas riding into the night. Sweet.
[Thanks to nikkicat13 for cat herding, as she put it. It was a fun crowd to go with.]