The Cat Empire @ The Tivoli, Brisbane with Clairy Browne and The Bangin’ Rackettes – 25 August 2010 – Live Review

Review: Victoria Nugent

  It may have been mid-week, but that didn’t deter the crowd at The Tivoli who flocked to see The Cat Empire perform on their Cinema tour.

As the evening kicked off, Clairy Browne and the Bangin’ Rackettes warmed up the crowd with their soulful stylings. Clairy Browne had a powerful presence as frontwoman, with an Amy Winehouse

style beehive and a deep, dulcet voice. The three Bangin’ Rackettes crooned backing vocals at the side of the stage and the band provided old style soul music to flesh out the sound, with punctuating saxophone. Champagne featured bright keys, rounded saxophone beautifully melodious verses and a less polished but more upbeat chorus. The band’s unique cover of Bang Bang from Kill Bill was a standout song, with the tempo slowed right down, giving it a more mournful sound than one would think possible. One memorable moment was the duet between Browne and her sister Natalie (one of the Bangin’ Rackettes) about not letting a man treat you badly, the classy soul punctuated by more modern one fingered gestures. T he group’s sultry sensual cover of a Tina Turner number, complete with red lit silhouettes further emphasised the band’s great range. Browne was at her powerfully smooth voiced best with Stephanie, a bitter song about the dangerous woman trying to steal your man. Clairy Browne and The Bangin’ Rackettes make music that is purely intoxicating, combining dirty doo-wop with sultry soul, slow hips and unison fingersnapping.
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[Photos: Cody Alexander]

The Cat Empire took to the stage to great applause. The band blazed through a mix of new songs and old favourites with rich instrumentation and copious trumpet and trombone solos. The live experience of The Cat Empire was very different to listening to their albums, with most songs starting with customised instrumental intros that kept the crowd guessing until the first recognisable strains sounded, and then cheers rang out. The songs from the band’s new album Cinema were a lot lighter on the trumpet and trombone, with DJ spun decks playing a much greater role. Shoulders had a funky chorus that got heads bopping, whilst Reasonably Fine had a much more poignant feel, lulling the audience into a softer mood, but only momentarily, before the barrage of energetic brass resumed.

Every member of the band had their moment to shine, with solos all round. During Sly, Felix Riebl belted out the lyrics in his idiosyncratic style and Will Hull-Brown busted out a truly dynamic drum soul. The Wine Song was truly electrifying, imbued with a kind of immense power, with audience participation at a high as the crowd swayed through the verses and chanted along manically with the chorus. Harry Angus’ trumpet solos were alternately slowly beautiful and insanely energetic, drawing yells of appreciation from the crowd. His scatting was almost as impressive, as he exhibited his talent with speed, energy and an extraordinary sense of timing punctuated by drumbeats from Hull-Brown. With plenty more instrumental solos encompassing trombone, trumpet and keys, the performance was a musical smorgasboard, with the lyrics less important than the instrumental skills.

Some of the songs with a more Latin feel were enhanced by the use of Spanish castanets and Riebl’s use of bongos rounded out the global musical feel. For the final song in their encore, the band performed Chariot, an apt choice with its lyrics about using their weapons as instruments, dedicating it to the audience, “and it always is”, in the words of Riebl, with band members taking turns to hold up their instruments, clearly proud of yet another well received gig.
Click the image to view the photo gallery

[Photos: Cody Alexander]
Review: Victoria Nugent


TheThe Cat Empire


Click the image to view the photo gallery

[Photos: Cody Alexander]