Live Review: The Growlers, The Babe Rainbow, Good Morning

As four-piece band Good Morning kick off the night, an intimate audience of two rapidly grows into a sea of denim jackets, tight skinny jeans and shaggy haircuts and the band begin hashing out their mellow, chilled-out tunes with lazy vocals and slightly distorted guitar riffs. At around song five, they introduce themselves to us and there’s an apparent pulling out of phones in the room as we note them down as a band to keep an eye on.

Starting a fashionable ten minutes late, three guys with identical blonde bobs – who look like they’ve just come out of Woodstock – take to the stage. The Babe Rainbow follow on from Good Morning’s example and start their set with an upbeat tune, which prompts an instant shuffle forward, drawing us in with their indie-rock meets “sha-la-la” sound. Mid-set, they’re joined by a couple of brunette band members and the band do a bit of a role swap, the drummer now a sunglass-wearing lead singer and there’s a flautist stage left.

We don’t have to wait long and, as The Growlers take to the stage, their guitarist affectionately greets the crowd with, “Mothafuckerrrrrs. Yeah. Fuck, yeah!” They kick things off with Big Toe, nicely followed by Naked Kids as lead singer Brooks Nielsen swaps between singing into a microphone in his hand and one on the stand in front of him. A few songs down the line and we’re at Love Test. Nielsen gestures a lot during this track, almost as if he’s having a discussion with us.

The Growlers are quite cool and controlled, performing naturally. Nielsen doesn’t even flinch as an audience member’s hat, which resembles a condom, flies up and hits him in the face during Tell It How It Is (nor when a dildo makes its way onto the stage). Bassist Anthony Braun Perry takes turns with Nielsen wearing their new hat, before it’s handed over to the audience. Chinese Fountain is the obvious crowd favourite for tonight and, much to Nielsen’s apparent horror, a wave of crowd-surfing follows. During a false finish with Someday, a girl gets up on stage and gives Nielsen a G-rated lap-dance and, after a bit of encore-ing, The Growlers finish up on Empty Bones.