Sparkadia @ Forum, Melbourne (16/09/2011)

Here's my Sparkadia review, written for FasterLouder...

Almost a year ago, Sydney’s Sparkadia played at the Forum supporting Little Red. At that time they were introducing new songs to a venue well suited to the songs’ size and they quickly impressed. In the time since, two tracks that were easily the best of that new material have become the band’s biggest. Now, months later, and with their second album having made a very nice dent on local radio, Sparkadia stood up to headline the Forum stage – a task they were certainly ready for.

Perhaps to keep the theme of “solo artist with a band name”, first up was The Trouble With Templeton – the moniker for Brisbane’s Thomas Calder. Gracing the stage with only his acoustic guitar, Calder succeeded in demonstrating a deal of variety in his folk tunes, yet didn’t seem to be straying far from what you’d hear any number of boy and guitar combos doing. For good timing’s sake, the introduction of female vocals halfway through did add flavour to the set, and on one track the harmonies could have even been chilling had it not been for the lack of atmosphere that comes with a chatterbox, careless crowd.

Keen to change that attitude were Canadians, Imaginary Cities, who came out next with every intent to please their first ever Melbourne crowd. Having released their debut album this year, Imaginary Cities are doing good things back home- including scoring a Pixies tour support slot – so it’s good that Sparkadia brought them over for Aussie ears. Before they even started to play they were making friends in the crowd though, with guitarist and seemingly all round nice guy Rusty Matyas handing out stubbies in the front row.

With varied musical likenesses throughout their set – from Fleetwood Mac to fellow Canadian indie band Metric – Imaginary Cities were a audible treat. But their real flair came in performance, with the entire band positively buzzing with energy and delight for playing here. A cover of Cake’s Mexico was thrown in for variant sake, the slower duet memorable when sandwiched between the fast and heavier numbers. Imaginary Cities were a band the crowd wanted to keep watching, so here’s hoping the Sparkadia tour will gather enough fans to bring them back some time.

Sparkadia certainly took their time to appear on stage, but thankfully for them the venue had filled up considerably by the time they did. Rather than immediately demonstrating that they’re a band with big things to prove, they began with the understated album opener, The Great Impression. It seemed pretty obvious why Alex Burnett would have chosen the Forum for his Melbourne show, as the sound quality is brilliant time after time, with tonight being no exception. His voice, evident from the offset, definitely took added strength from the fact.

Whilst the band on stage may have changed over the past couple of years (from indie types to the current pair of guitarist/bassist picked straight out of pouty-lipped, pretty boy parade), Burnett still holds the band’s trademarks. It’s not just his beautiful voice either, the crazy darting eyes still shoot across the stage and his hair still looks like it’s taken longer to prep than ten sound checks. The old songs remain excellent as well, with early additions of Kiss of Death and Too Much To Do in the set list getting the crowd’s voice warmed up for the latter half of the show.

Talking Like I’m Falling Down Stairs – one that Burnett claims to have been “a wonderful mistake” of a song – was another early highlight, with the front man eagerly turning his microphone to the crowd to have them take its chorus away. Of course, the first song to be thrown to the crowd is bound to sound good when they’ve just been told the radio’s recording them.

Whilst the first half of the set dabbled in friendly sing-a-longs, it wasn’t until the later moments that Sparkadia showed how large their sound can be. With menacing strobe lighting partnering the forceful percussive introduction to Up In The Air, Burnett’s new band were backing him as a really strong unit, intent on proving they had moved well and truly beyond playing smaller venues. Toward the end, the stellar Mary threatened to take the roof off, with Burnett trying his hand at gospel like theatrics and getting the crowd to deafeningly call the chorus.

That should have ended things, but Ghost was brought out to little more than filler effect, before China again sparked the crowd to life to end things, though arguably not as well as Mary already had. An encore ensued, and began with something different entirely – Burnett’s solo acoustic stint for Space And Time. This proved a fitting step back from the fanfare and a worthy encore addition. Clearly the larger ones were going to get the best reactions, though, and the band reverted to how their main set ended, with a giant Jealousy finishing things off, and again demonstrating via the crowd’s roar-along reaction that Sparkadia are on top of their game.