The Cat Empire / Paprika Balkanicus

On a humid Thursday in July The Cat Empire returned to Europe to promote their much praised live album. First stop Bristol and the sold out venue is hot and sweaty as devoted fans who were lucky enough to get a ticket vie for the best positions in the arena.

The support act Paprika Balkanicus warm the crowd up with a rousing display of eastern European style gypsy music, a fun and fitting entrée before the main feature who undoubtedly absorb these kinds of elements and more into their own music.

The crowd roar with delight as the Cat Empire take to the stage and open their set with 'Fishies' taken from their third official album (excluding the limited edition 'Cities' album). The band of course sound polished from the very first note as not only is every band member an exceptional musician but their love of touring has made them effortlessly good entertainers, whilst also giving them the title of the Australian band that has played to the most people this decade.

'Days Like These' is dropped into the set early and whilst it is probably the most radio friendly song in their repertoire is not thought any less of by their devotees and allows fans their first opportunity to become interactive with the singing as they provide the "wo oh oh oh's" of the chorus. The crowd surfing begins as fans tumble about above our heads and the band take the music and energy up another notch.

A band with such ability can take any song from any of their albums and transform it into a new experience live. One song in particular was 'The Darkness' from 'So Many Nights' album wherein Harry Angus vocalises Arabic style scales at full power and on the night he hit every note perfectly as the band backed him with an intense performance. Few bands are adept enough to experiment with these styles at such levels in a studio so to hear it live is a rare treat.

The set list was never going to displease the fans as it included various favourites from each of their three albums such as; 'Sly', 'How to Explain', 'So Many Nights', 'The Lost Song', and 'In My Pocket' (where the entire band watched as the drummer performed what must have been a five minute drum solo). but they slipped in a track called 'Rhyme and Reason' which doesn't appear on any album release. This seemed to be the only moment when the band seemed to lose the audience. The piece was slow and relatively dull, feeling like the band were playing for themselves rather than something that their listeners wanted to hear.

The climax of the set was 'Two Shoes' a fitting finale praising music and how it fills us with the need to dance, and the audience did just that, happily and unashamedly. As The Cat Empire exited the stage we all knew they would return if we cheered loud enough and most of the audience probably hoped they would play their all time classic 'The Chariot'.

Returning for an encore Riebl tells the audience they will only play one more as Ollie McGill and Angus begin 'The Wine Song', a much loved requiem to drinking. The crowd sway and chant with the verse and bounce along to the chorus as it builds in momentum. As with many Cat Empire songs the band make the most of the various directions and possibilities of the song with seven or more minutes seeming short. Luckily Riebl lied and the band begin the opening refrain to 'The Chariot' as the crowd lose control moshing and singing at full voice to trumpet section as well as the lyrics.

As good an end to the gig as that was it was perhaps made more special by the middle section being replaced with a short version of Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' in tribute to his recent passing before slipping back into the final parts of 'Chariot' Regardless of the intense heat inside the venue the gig was, for me, memorable for all the right reasons and the hundreds of sweaty smiling faces leaving the venue suggested that everyone else thought the same.

FUTURE GIGS