Manchester 5 piece band Courteeners played Melbourne’s Forum on Thursday night as a part of their long awaited debut Australia headline tour, supported by BIIG TIME – the side project of brothers Johnny Took (DMAs) and Marty Took (PLANET).
As a Mancunian far from ‘home’, I’d given up any hope of seeing ‘Teeners live again (and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one), so this was a little bit of a special evening. The set got off to a wobbly start with a couple of sound issues on the first song but this was soon rectified and the band fell into their swing, weaving through tracks from their 7 album catalogue. There was a heavy focus on popular first album St. Jude and of course the current album, Pink Cactus Cafe, but it was nice to see tracks such as Falcon’s ‘Take Over The World’ and ‘Are You in Love With a Notion?’ from Anna making their way into the set.
The new album definitely has a different sound from previous ones (read about that here) so it was interesting to see those songs reimagined for a live set. They had a rockier feel which helped them sit more naturally within the bands back catalogue. While Courteeners’ classics such as “Cavorting”, “Please Don’t” and of course “Not Nineteen Forever” elicited the biggest response from the crowd it’s pleasing to see newer songs such as ‘Solitude of the Night Bus’ also getting a strong reaction.
Lead singer and guitarist Liam Fray knows how to play a crowd, from the cavorting around stage to the pauses to allow the crowd to sing along. He kept fans engaged for the entire evening and he’s entertaining to watch (a couple of friends back home will be pleased to know he can still manage a cheeky hip wiggle). At one point the band took a break and he played several acoustic tracks. It was a brave move, but one that paid off, allowing for a switch in pace to the evening and giving Elina Lin (on keys) a moment in the spotlight. It also helped to further bridge the gap between their newer sound and older songs. Off stage, Fray has definitely become more humble and reflective with age, but there were still glimmers of that cocky front man once he’s got a guitar in his hand, and that’s not a bad thing.
The whole show was a night of high energy entertainment from both the band and the crowd. My only question to Courteeners is what took you so long?
Listen to Pink Cactus Cafe here.
Find out more about Courteeners here.