On Tuesday, NLG went to the Alix Goolden Hall to be elevated to another level by Arts and Crafts recording artists, The Hidden Cameras. The setting was a “church”; a strange enough setting considering one of the opening bands played Eastern Bloc gypsy music, and the Hidden Cameras’ choir were garbed in what appeared to be Ku Klux Klan attire. However, the setting couldn’t have been a more fitting venue, because the experience was ethereal.
Right from the start, the show was incredibly visual. The first band, 15-piece Bucan Bucan, promenaded the theatre dressed like 1920’s Hungarians with all sorts of brass and wind, and were followed by the band Meatdraw who appeared to be triplets. Apart from being pretty talented (he once led the whole Bucan Bucan army with a beat) Meatdraw’s drummer looked like the Queen from Alice in Wonderland, playing croquet with drumsticks in slow-motion--so much fun to watch. They were followed by the group Gentleman Reg, whom I honestly thought were upstaged by the raw energy of the previous acts.
NLG made use of the intermission before Hidden Cameras to down a black can in Victoria’s favourite alleyway, and from the moment we stepped back inside the building until the show ended two hours later, we didn’t stop dancing. We couldn’t. The music was more infectious than the swine flu—which I think I got from going to bed with wet hair (thanks a lot). Normally a 9-piece band, the Hidden Cameras probably had more than 40 people on the stage at some points, with nearly everyone from the opening bands, a choir of randomly selected Victorians, hell even NLG's own Serge and Ellie Vator made it on stage to double on the tambourine. Led by curiously charismatic frontman Joel Gibb, the Cameras were horns, violin, bass, keys, drums, and wind chimes. They had harmonies that would make Brian Wilson smile, beats and chants that made me want to buy a one-way ticket to Paul Simon’s Graceland, and 60’s rhythms that had us doing the Cavern Stomp, Watusi, and the Mashed Potato. It was like being at a performance by a bunch of your friends: the crowd was in the band, and the band was in the crowd. There was 200% crowd participation, and the band was the most humble and welcoming I have seen. The climax of the show, which featured the last tracks off their latest album, Origin:Orphan, left the crowd with just enough breath to shake the piety out of the building with chants and stomps asking for “one more”. When the Cameras returned, it was another wild, sexy, exuberant display of musical salaciousness that enveloped the crowd in a wave of jubilation. After the show, I’ve never seen such comradery between the attendees as well as the band members. High fives and sweating faces abound, it was like we had been through a war together. Joel Gibb even gave NLG an exclusive ‘no look gun’. “Blog it up” we will!
The Hidden Cameras - Do I Belong?
The Hidden Cameras - Underage
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