Middle Kids @ Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW Australia 24/04/2017 written by Brendan Lewis


For a band still so young in their career, Middle Kids have already harnessed a strong sound, and attention grabbing performance to go with it!

The band kicked off the night with opening song 'Your Love' on their debut EP, (if my memory serves me right) which is a strong choice for the starting song for their EP and performance, with its up-beat, indie-rock sound and anthem-like, soulful vocals that leaves you with the tingles.

Straight after the first song, Hannah wasn't afraid to engage the crowd with bubbly confidence, to remind the crowd that this isn't just the music you love played loudly, its a performance from the band!

The way the band proceeded through the nicely length set, which perfectly flowed from one song to the next, without long awkward pauses between, that leaves you with a whip-lash feeling. Embracing the crowds positivity and high spirits, Hannah and bassist Tim, both spoke to the crowd well, building up the hype of the night's performance, while also giving the band a breather from their energetic performance, (featuring some groovy dance moves from Hannah) while they spoke.

The band dropped their less hard-hitting song 'Do It Right' right where it needed to be in the set, to give the crowd a slight contrast so we didn't all get an energy over-load, before they built up to the final songs in the set, the real crowd pleasers! (before the encore that we totally never see coming... blind pun alert!)

Up until this point, the crowd had been respectfully or perhaps just lazily, quiet during each song, that all changed when the band started to play heavyweight hits "Edge Of Town' and finally, (before the encore) 'Never Start' which during those songs, the crowd sung every word with Hannah in perfect drunken audience harmony!

The final two songs peaked the energy in a way not yet seen, but being such anthem indie rock songs with such climatic choruses, the band could even add more to the choruses to raise the energy and excitement even more, and make the songs special from what we're all used to hearing on the CD... download I should say. Maybe an extra layer of guitar or a fancy effect in the choruses?

And finally, the sound mixer did do a good enough job with the sound, however, me who has trouble seeing even right up at the front, and likes to feel the energy around me and be like a total teenie-bopper grooving at the front, the vocals could've been raised a bit more for us front row fans.

All in all, these guys are definitely worth the little money they charge for their tickets, and worth travelling out of your way for, and are heading towards much bigger frontier's in their career I'm sure!

Was a treat seeing them so early in their career in a nice intimate venue! I very much look forward to seeing them again!