Sydney Opera House
Saturday March 3, 2018 :
From country pubs to sold out festivals The Rubens have toured nearly every inch of Australia with fans generally getting the chance to shake a Margin’s hand after a hot and sweaty show. Throughout their career they’ve endeavoured to craft an organic connection with fans, aiding to their success. Having jumped around at many Rubens gigs myself I know how raucous they can be. Unfortunately their set at The Opera House Concert Hall on Saturday night just didn’t translate. It pains me to say it and I wish I didn’t have to but I found the entire experience quite dull. There were many factors working against them which could have been avoided with more thought.
The guys were stoked to be playing The Opera House and who could blame them but the venue didn’t do them any favours. The intimate space of the Concert Hall paired with lowish levels highlighted the similarity and simplicity in the song writing of the five-piece. Not to mention the hall was half empty which didn’t help the vibe at all. Any gig on the same night as Mardi Gras is going to suffer. At times Sam Margin’s apathetic face would surface, unable to hide his clear disappointment in the crowd. His attempt at trying to get the crowd to stand up for the “songs you (crowd) don’t like” came across indignant.
A duet with Kira Puru from their forthcoming third album, stuck out in the Hoops heavy set. Quite a different direction stylistically as obvious dissonance and sporadic melodies created intrigue. Rainbow lights showered down as they dedicated ‘Elvis’ to Mardi Gras followed by ‘Never Be The Same’, which established contrast in the set as Sam moved to piano and poured his heart out singing “It took something bad, to show me what I had“. Support act Joyride joined Sam in a stroll around the hall throwing merchandise to lucky spectators but Sam couldn’t hide that apathetic face again. An encore of ‘Lay It Down’ and ‘Hoops’ closed the show with latter producing one of the biggest crowd responses yet.
Adding texture to fatten up live performances seems more common than not amongst bands recently. I appreciate that The Rubens chose to keep their raw classic rock line-up but it needed to be loud and full of energy to achieve the same effect. All of the components necessary to continue as a popular Aussie band are in the foundations of The Rubens character and I’m sure they will deliver loads of triumphant shows in the future but Saturday just wasn’t their night.
Reviewer : Louie Smith
Photographer : Bobby Hendry
THE RUBENS
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JOYRIDE
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