The Rubens @ The Forum

10/5/13

There are many reasons being short sucks: the inability to reach anything that is placed higher than two metres above you, people assuming you’re still in high school, and most importantly, you can’t see over other peoples’ heads. This last fact proves an important problem when you’re trying to watch a concert.

The crowd were so eager for the band to come out that as I squeezed and contorted myself into different shapes trying to get to the best place in the crowd, I found myself pushed up right behind what seemed to me to be a pair of giants. The band came out at this point to huge applause, going straight into ‘The Day You Went Away’, a thumping track from their self-titled debut album and perfect for getting the crowd ramped up with its heavy, rhythmic drums and bass.

It wasn’t until about the third or the fourth song that I realised they had a keyboard player. I changed spots and felt like Moses parting the Red Sea. I could actually see the whole band, not just the drummer, who admittedly played a tight set. From then on I got right into the show, and they sounded great. Front man Sam interacted with the crowd, and even got one of their super fans to come up onto the stage for their last song. It’s always good to see bands acknowledging their fan base.

Near the end they played arguably their biggest hit, ‘Lay It Down’, thanking Triple J for giving them their start. The crowd went wild for it. A few sat on friends’ shoulders, singing along to the whole song. They finished the main set with one of their first ever songs, ‘Don’t Ever Want to be Found’, and most of the crowd seemed to know it, highlighting the dedication of their fans.

Finally, they encored with ‘My Gun’, the latest single off the album. They started with a prolonged, building intro, and once the audience recognised the song, everyone danced around and sang along. At one point I’m pretty sure I saw someone throw a large item of clothing onto the stage, although sadly not underwear, unless they wore clown-size. It was the perfect song to end on, with the band really letting loose and rocking out to it and making it sound even better than the album version. I jumped along with everyone else, although it honestly made no difference to my view. Sometimes I could see the singer; most of the time it was the drummer. I did see a bit of the lead guitarist, Zaac Margin, and he played fantastically. He gave his all with the last solo of the night, and, in true rock ‘n’ roll fashion, threw down his guitar after the show was over.

And so we walked out to his still-ringing guitar holding the last note, knowing we had experienced a great Aussie band.

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