LUCA BRASI // Burning Brighter

LUCA BRASI with Tiny Moving Parts & Eliza And The Delusionals
The Triffid, Brisbane
Friday 17 August, 2018

With a blend of soft rock and jazz playing in the courtyard and the overflow of all the 9-5 workers having Friday drinks, The Triffid in Brisbane was more than ready to be shaken up by Luca Brasi.

MORE: TROPHY EYES: The Dreamers And The Doers // ALPHA WOLF: … And Out Come The Breakdowns // OUTRIGHT: Don’t Holler Atcha Girl
REVIEWS: TROPHY EYES: The American Dream // AS IT IS: The Great Depression // PLINI: Sunhead`// DORO: Forever Warriors, Forever United

As the second show on their Stay album tour presented by triple j, and their first outside of Tasmania, expectations were high. The band’s fourth studio album was released in June, climbing to #10 on the ARIA charts. It gained accolades from GQ as one of the ‘Top Eight Albums To Workout To.’ This tour would mark the first time a lot of tracks off the album would be debuted live outside of Tasmania, and the crowd was eager to prove they knew the words.

Gold Coast based indie rock foursome, Triple J Unearthed feature artist and 2017 winner of the National Institute of Dramatic Art competition Eliza & The Delusionals walked on stage with matching red shirts and a hell of an attitude to Chocolate Rain playing. Joining Luca Brasi for the entirety of their tour, the band proved to be the perfect mash of indie and punk to set the mood, managing to draw a decent early crowd.

Eliza and the Delusionals // By Alex Nisiriou

The set started slowly as the band tried to find their confidence, and the change of pace with the track Cigarette was what the band really needed to find their feet. The band played a number of tracks off their 2017 release The Deeper End alongside some of their single releases as far back as 2016 like Salt which has gathered some airtime on Triple J over the years. The set over delivered and destroyed expectations as the first support, and there was an overall disappointment when the set ultimately came to an end. They closed out the start to the night on their recently released single Half Empty Girl which you can find the film clip for here.

Eliza and the Delusionals // By Alex Nisiriou

From Benson, Minnesota came Tiny Moving Parts, in what was their very first Australian show, they proved they weren’t here to mess around and launched right into Applause off their latest album Swell released earlier this year. In this first track alone the band was visibly taken about with the number of audience members singing the lyrics to the song.

Tiny Moving Parts // By Alex Nisiriou

The band looked more stoked to be there than anyone in the room, it was a refreshing change to what can become the tediousness of apathy in the scene, but it ultimately complimented Luca Brasi’s happy go lucky brand of music. Lead vocalist Dylan Mattheisen has an interesting stage presence in what was a combination of Conor Oberst and Isaac Brock mannerisms. More so than ever while performing their older, more raw and emotional tracks like Sundress off album Pleasant Living. While they only managed to fit in one headline tour for themselves around the dates they’re supporting Luca Brasi, it shouldn’t be too long before the band does a larger tour. If you’re a Melbourne local and want to treat yourself to an emotionally charged night out to get over your latest heartbreak, Tiny Moving Parts are playing at the Reverence Hotel on 25th August, and tickets are still available here.

Tiny Moving Parts // By Alex Nisiriou

Between sets, Tiny Moving Parts also got Luke Henery from Violent Soho’s stamp of approval, telling me I’d better be giving them a good write up, and something along like lines of “they’re fucking awesome”.

Leading with the title track, Stay Luca Brasi had an explosive start to the set, and despite the venue selling out with close to 700 people at capacity, the room still managed to feel homely. Before easing into The In-Between, lead vocalist Tyler Richardson mentioned, “It’s an absolute fucking pleasure to be back in this room with you all, we haven’t played most of these songs outside fucking Tasmania before and you guys are making it so fucking easy for us.”

Letting the crowd take the reigns during the chorus, the band had grins from ear to ear as they closed the second show on the Stay tour.

It was nearly impossible to fault the band’s performance of the new tracks, they sounded almost exactly like the studio recorded versions, with a little bit more grit, and a little bit more passion in them. The moment the opening chords of Reeling began the crowd surged forward and really helped the band kick things up a notch. With 3 members of the crowd trying and failing to do a triple-decker on each other’s shoulders, and someone’s shoes being thrown from wall to wall of the venue, still early in the set it was hard to believe the band could top the energy of the room.