Live Review: Cloud Nothings, Cannon

It should be a rule that every international band that plays here is supported by Cannon. Sweaty, unhinged, loose and charming as hell, there’s no better way to say “Welcome to Brisbane, c*nts.”

You definitely miss something when they play bigger stages, however. The energy isn’t quite the same when you’re not in danger of being spat on, though singer Callan Murray pretty much manages to bridge the gap with his charisma and strangled-shouty vocals. Their version of The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me Baby continues a run of excellent and ridiculous covers (they used to do Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac. Yeah, it was sick) and the band cap off a set that reminds everyone why it’s sometimes worth showing up early to gigs.

From Minor Threat to Weezer to DZ Deathrays, there’s often been a disconnect between the type of person who plays loud music and the type of person who goes to see it. But rarely is it as almost laughably obvious as tonight, where a bunch of primarily jacked-up, flat-capped bros who could have come straight from Stereosonic push people around while Cloud Nothings’ main dude Dylan Baldi sings un-animatedly (hey, it is the last show of the tour) about his feelings in a button-up and glasses.

But that’s a big part of what makes Cloud Nothings so great – their universality. When Baldi sings anthemic lyrics like ‘I thought I would be more than this’ ‘I’m losing it/what do I care?’ and ‘No future!/No past!’, he gives you just enough information to get the feeling of the hopelessness, destructiveness or anguish that he’s drilled into these songs, but he’s also left enough space for you to construct your own narrative, to make these songs relevant to any time or any person. Or, you could also choose to go with no narrative and just throw yourself around to the rock hard, relentless, driving guitar and tense and tight rhythm section.The noise or lo-fi label has never fitted particularly well on Cloud Nothings. Lo-fi implies there’s something amateurish or loose about their sound, and noise that there’s some abrasive outer shell that listeners have to get through to appreciate the music, and neither of these apply to the immediate, catchy, melodic rock and roll being performed tonight. Though it would have been a treat to hear some new songs and get a taste of what the future of Cloud Nothings is gonna look like, when a band releases as much consistently good music as these guys do it doesn’t really matter what songs they play – it all rules.