Clad in a dad shirt and his son’s skinny jeans with mullet sliding off the back of his head, Spencer White does not immediately evoke comparisons to David Bowie, and yet when Morning Harvey began to play, his hip thrusting and dance moves were quintessential Bowie. Aside from Spencer, his band fellows have perfected the appearance of anhedonia, seemingly essential to all indie pop-outfits. Smith Street Swap Meet with its stable, thrusting opening that threatens to jellify under the many layers of sound really gets White going. Moves that are simultaneously so dorky, so cool and so genuine that you can’t help but smile.

But with the exception of Lights Camera Gina, Morning Harvey was less Euro-glam and more psychedelic pop. Pinch Me Velvet overlays hypnotising guitar pop with Spencer’s voice (lighter and shimmering here). The result: a swirl of sounds, something between alt rock and psychedelic pop. Morning Harvey was raw and possessed a relaxed energy that made them a great opening for San Cisco.

San Cisco’s music has always been about the tension between their poppy, catchy, sugary-sweet hooks and acerbic, questioning, challenging lyrics. Bitter Winter has the most danceable beat-pop stylings and yet there are lyrics: ‘I’m struggling and might see a shrink / I never thought that I would think that,’ that are so exposed. Add a Triffid crowd ecstatically dancing and you have something like a Pumped Up Kicks effect – a joyous celebration of a dark revelation. Jordi Davieson described it as, ‘Summarising Grace Town’ (San Cisco’s second album, which provided the vast amount of material for the gig). To me it also summarised their performance.

This is not to say that San Cisco’s tone was homogenous: Magic, featuring the sublime Scarlet Stevens, and Jealousy prevented pop-saturation. San Cisco knows how to create a building, diverse set. But the band was conservative in altering their songs from the record: Too Much Time Together was slowed down and Wash It All Away featured some cool alterations to the chorus but largely they remained faithful to the tried-and-tested album sound. Although this undoubtedly pleased the crowd, I was disappointed. I like seeing a band bring something fresh to a live gig. There was no element of surprise, just a fulfilment of my admittedly high expectations. 

With a dual encore – a solo performance of Skool that neatly encapsulated Jordi’s sweet, dorky appeal and a rocking performance of Fred Astaire – San Cisco delivered a great, yet safe gig. 

- Damian Maher