Art Vs Science @ The Hi-Fi, Brisbane – 13 August 2010 – Live Review

Review: Lauren Sherritt


[Photo: Stuart Blythe]
  Anticipation levels high, crowds of dance-hungry fans packed Brisbane’s Hi-Fi Bar last Friday night to experience Art vs. Science’s much talked about ‘Magic Fountain’ live show. The night was cold and crisp and the excitement in the air palpable as hundreds of fans headed to the great venue for some high quality Australian entertainment.

They were first greeted by Sydney-siders Jinja Safari, who gave a solid set and got the audience members who had turned up earlier moving with their light electro-tunes. After a short break Tim and Jean appeared and really showed the crowd a thing or two about rocking out. It was hard to tell whether the musicians or the crowd were getting more into it, but it was clear that both were getting a lot out of the music as excitement levels began to rise and the venue began to fill. After performing their more well known tunes “Veronica” and “Come Around”, Tim and Jean gracefully departed the stage, curtains closing, leaving the rest of the night for the headline act Art vs. Science to fill.

The closed stage curtains adding to the thrill of the audience and all standing areas of the Hi-Fi now packed, the main event of this show, sold out weeks before, was only minutes away. After a very respectable wait (none of this ‘we will keep the crowd who forked out their hard earned pennies to hear us standing around for hours like lost sheep’ business when Art vs. Science is involved) the sound system music hushed, the crowd buzzed and the curtain parted.

They started off with some of their lesser known tunes, “Lesson” and “Take Me To Your Leader” getting the crowd warmed up. But it was when the strobe lights flashed and the familiar first strains of “We Lost a Friend” blasted throughout the venue that Art vs. Science really hit their stride, the first vocals-only chorus rocking the audience whose rapture didn’t cease from this point until the final song.

Art vs. Science had the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands; Dan Mac stunning on guitar and keys, Jim Finn with his hilarious antics also on keyboard, and Dan W up the back intensely good on the drums, while they all contributed to the vocals. For over an hour they played a few new tunes as well as their biggest hits, and really bought down the house with tremendous covers of Electric Six’s “Gay Bar” and DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince’s “Boom! Shake the Room”, in which Dan blew the crowd away with his expert vocal skills. It was clear that Art vs. Science were committed to the business of entertaining and they exceeded expectations repeatedly as the night wore on.

“Magic Fountain” and “Parlez Vous Francais?” were both performed in spectacular style, Dan walking out into the crowd along a bar bench to play his “Parlez Vous” solos, and the night couldn’t have been completed more fittingly than with the ultra-energised rendition of “Flippers” the boys performed. Standing united and taking a well earned bow before the wild audience, the three boys of Art vs. Science departed the stage having given all they could and playing a show like no other, which is sure to be remembered by the hundreds of attendees for a long time to come.


ArtArt vs. Science