Lightspeed Champion
Northcote Social Club
July 30, 2008
He wears a massive, furry grey hat – one of those hats you wear in the arctic because it covers virtually everything but your face. He is a bit shy at first – a bit of a slow start. Then he notices the audience digs him and his music. Some people are singing along. They cheer when he tells them which song he will play next.
“This is one of my favourite shows,” frontman Devonte ‘Dev’ Hynes says near the end of Lightspeed Champion’s hour long set at the Northcote Social Club on Wednesday night. “No really,” trying to convince a crowd that doesn’t need convincing. He tells us of touring European festivals and the shit shows where he suspects the only reason there was anyone watching them at all was because they were in a tent and it was raining outside.
And perhaps this dialogue says more than I can about UK’s Lightspeed Champion and ex-Test Icicles member, Dev Hynes. Dev is a bit unsure of himself. Read his blog on the band’s official site, and you’ll see what’s going on in his head: his preoccupation with girls; his own self-esteem; his tales of being on the road. His lyrics are quirky and self-reflective, vulnerable and personal. And he’s not afraid to swear – a lot.
For the tour, he brings along a group of multi-talented musicians. The lady drummer, Anna Prior, also plays the guitar. Mike Siddell plays with passion the violin, the keys, guitar and bass. Dev’s longtime friend Mike, aka The Train Chronicles, plays the guitar and bass. And of course Dev himself plays guitar, keys and drums. They all switch. They all sing.
The set consisted of many of the tracks from their only album, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, as well as a few new tracks. Opening with the album’s first song Galaxy Of The Lost, slowing down with Salty Water, continuing with the personal Everyone I Know Is Listening To Crunk, adding in a new song the band had “only practiced a handful of times and they were all today”, and finishing with the epic Midnight Surprise, to name a few.
The mix of folk, country and pop was fun and original. Having the show in the intimate bandroom at the Northcote Social Club definitely helped the atmosphere. But ultimately it was the passion the music was played with, the interaction Dev had with the crowd and his obvious appreciation and shock that people like him, and the multitalented group of musicians that made the night so successful.
Lightspeed Champion did come out for an Encore, but not with the song Dev would have chosen to end on. Although finishing with All To Shit, the gig definitely didn’t go that way.
Photos courtesy of Adam Pattison.
