Live Review: What We Overheard On The City Calm Down Tour
During live shows we’ve overheard a few people mentioning similarities between City Calm Down and some old school contemporaries.
Since the release of their debut album In A Restless House, during live shows we’ve overheard a few people mentioning similarities between City Calm Down and some old school contemporaries. It’s not hard to see where the comparisons have come from, but really with the band spending such a long time refining their sound and perfecting their album, there’s no doubt that they have a beautiful sound that just cannot be compared.
But the audience did it anyway and here's what we overheard:
“They sound a lot like The National”
This is probably the most common comparison we heard over the last few weeks. In the crowd, before the live show has even begun, you can hear people discussing the resemblance between City Calm Down and the US outfit. The biggest hint of that would come from singer Jack Bourke’s deep baritone. There aren’t many singers who have the vocal range that he does and someone even asked “if you heard him talk just normally, would you think he could sing like that?” Bourke has a wonderful voice and it may sound similar to The National’s Matt Berninger, but during the live show you can hear how much Bourke’s vocals seem to dance around the music whilst Berninger’s voice tends to coat the music like chocolate over caramel.
“Is it me, or do they sound a bit like a perkier Joy Division?”
Joy Division had a unique sound when they burst onto the scene and in 1979, killed it with ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. The band’s sound cleverly paired synths with deep bass guitars and electric riffs and City Calm Down do a similar thing where they’re able to find a great balance between their synths and other instruments. If you hear them play ‘Pleasure and Consequence’ - an old favourite from their Movements EP- you can hear the airy synths hovering over the deep bass and the drums driving guitars into the explosive chorus. A balance between synths and general instrumentation can be difficult, but City Calm Down have successfully married them together. Although Joy Division did a good job of it, these guys seem to have really perfected it.
“Wow, they are just like Morrissey!”
On their tour, City Calm Down did an amazing cover of ‘This Charming Man’, made famous by The Smiths. Over the last few months, the band have been absolutely killing their covers and overtime they play, the audience is treated to a different cover. At Splendour In The Grass, the crowd relished over the band’s interpretation of David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and this time round they gave us a bit of Morrissey. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from City Calm Down, it’s that they like to perfect their music and that lesson seems to resonate with covers also. Both of these live covers were spot on, but they seemed to have a bit of a cheeky demeanour about them, probably because they’ve heard these comparisons once or twice as well.
“They look like they’re having so much fun up there!”
The band can put on one hell of a show and everyone seems to agree with it. With Bourke’s rhythmic dance moves, the friendly banter between tracks and the closeness the band all seem to have on stage, of course it looks like fun! During every song you were hard pressed to find someone not enjoying themselves. City Calm Down don’t need crazy theatrics to put on a show, they just need good music and good vibes on stage to share with the audience in front of them.
Words & Pictures by Lauren Payne
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