Last Friday I caught Sydney (actually, Blue Mountains) band of the moment Cloud Control play at the Metro. I’ve mentioned them before; I love their pop catchiness and great harmonies.
Live they delivered the same fun that comes through on their recorded tracks. Every song has hooks, and they’re happy hooks. It’s all bright and singalong, but not at all lightweight: the bass lines give everything a firm rock underpinning. They bring the guitar loudness only once or twice, and don’t overdo it. They sound good.
They play every song from their album. The crowd reacts appropriately to “There’s Nothing In The Water We Can’t Fight”. When, during “Ghost Story”, we sing along to ‘I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up,’ we mean it. And while playing a verse of another artist’s song inside one of your own has now become a live cliché I really enjoyed it when they slipped some of Butthole Surfers’ “Pepper” into the middle of “Gold Canary”, causing the mostly under-25 crowd to collectively say ‘Huh?’
The packed Metro was their biggest headline show to date. Cloud Control are still pretty young, and have only released one album, so I predict more goodness to come. Expect to see them in Europe and the US soon.
Cloud Control. Photo from laubarnes via Creative Commons license
