Midlake, Big Scary @ The Metro Theatre, July 31

Kudos to Melbourne duo Big Scary (or the management thereof) for landing the support slot tonight. With their breadcrumb trail of EPs having yet to lead to an album, opening for a Major American Rock Group is no small feat. They certainly deserve the exposure, the pair providing a toothsome showcase of their gentler side – the downside being that Tom Iansek’s sweetly warbling tenor was often overwhelmed by the friendly babble of a restive crowd. While this was mostly the sound guy’s fault, some material seemed a touch tentative, a concern that certainly didn’t apply to an innervating rendition of ‘Autumn’.

Midlake raised eyebrows with their third album The Courage Of Others, songwriter and scraggly troubadour Tim Smith’s fixation on the likes of Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull giving rise to an exercise in ’70s English folk revivalism with a peculiarly American flavour. The turn of the century log cabin shtick of the band’s breakthrough Van Occupanther gave way to ancient woods, fair maids and a deep and abiding melancholy. And such was the tone this evening, Smith performing much of the set comfortably seated whilst intoning lines such as “I will never have the courage of others” with an appropriate amount of gravitas.

Not that this was a downer in any way; the Texan septet generate a magnetic atmosphere with a decidedly old-school air (aided and abetted by the odd whiff of weed and the high ratio of grey hair scattered through the audience), while building some utterly electrifying climaxes (‘Core of Nature’ as a case in point). But while it’s difficult not admire the conviction and stature that Smith & Co. bring to their newer material, the VO favourites ‘Bandits’ and ‘Branches’ with which they chose to encore were like a ray of sunshine on the woodlands after rain.


First published in The Brag, Iss. 374, August 9th 2010