“a party 24/7”

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Caravãna Sun & LaBrassBanda @ Lansdowne Hotel, Sydney NSW Australia 21/03/2019 written by Brendan Lewis.

On days like these, a mighty alarm-sirens blare, what kind of sirens? Simple, musical party sirens, but nothing like you’ve ever experienced before let me assure you of that! Sydney surf-rock party boys Caravana Sun and their guerilla club of a performance, have come back home to Australia, but this time, have brought a musical souvenir back from Germany to accompany them on tour. Indeed, joining Caravana Sun on this special intimate run of shows, are long-time German friends, LaBrassBanda who’ve been all around the world with their fast-paced party moves, likely brewed and mastered on a similarly fast-paced autobahn of Germany…… But never have they been to Australia, until now.

All that I know is, that this is going to be one hell of a show that you’re going to want to read my review of!

...... Would really suck if there was no review below aye!

LaBrassBanda are up first, and when I interviewed Ant from Caravãna Sun recently, he told me everyday was a party with them when they toured together in Europe, so this should be good!

The first three songs differ in the way of the opening song being an instrumental to my surprise, the second featuring quick vocal flicks that would put most MC’s in their place, and the third being sung in German, rather than English like the previous song. Despite my inability to speak German the last time I checked, I’m enjoying the insanely lively, fun vibes of the third and both two songs that preceded it!

From these three songs and right through the entire set, the band harness three crucial elements stunningly that make me and the rest of the audience dance, and in no way subtly at that! The first is the addictively catchy rhythms and melodies belted out masterfully by let’s see here... 1, 2, 3… 4 trumpetiers, the vocalist being one of them, accompanying the other sounds on stage. I honestly can’t see how many band members there are and what instrument they’re holding, there’s at least a drummer though. The second, is the way all members on stage dance, mostly in-sync with one another and have an absolute wow of a time, roping their audience into sharing the good vibes with them, by instigating melodic hook sing-alongs, clap-alongs and even a four-step dance that I’m SO thankful I’m right up close and am able to see the whole band demonstrate in-sync, it’s freakin’ priceless! And thirdly, is a perfectly fitting sound mix! I’m quite impressed, I don’t normally expect such perfection of sound mixing in a lot of “pub” venues, given a number of factors including the acoustics of the venue. But tonight, the sound is simply natural to the beholder, it sounds just as it should, simply natural!

I was seriously not expecting such a wildly fun, energetic and overall good-felt party performance like this! Songs in the set do change, some rapidly within themselves to keep things fresh and lively and there’s even a slowly building reggae-like song to mix it up. I feel, personally, it’s good that the band make their performance so entertaining and engaging, as I feel if it weren’t, the music might get a touch repetitive after a while. Still, this leaves a bloody-big roaring blaze of energy in the air for Caravãna Sun to try and follow-up with, let’s see if they can pull it off!

The first song dished out from Caravãna Sun is a funky-groove of mid-tempo energy with cool, easy to enjoy vocals. Lead singer Ant plays on the energy hype left by LaBrassBanda and seamingly acknowledges that this current song might not musically live up to the hype, so Ant fills the gap nicely with clap-alongs and sing-alongs for the crowd to play with, while he revs us up as he walks around the tiny stage. Well played Ant, well played!

The next two songs bring the musical energy up a bit keeping the energy level sustained cleverly. The first of these two features suitably retrospective horns to LaBrassBanda in a Caravana Sun flavour, which is rather smart to give the audience a bit of consistancy to an extent. The second of which brings the energy up that next step and brings the audiences dances out of early retirement.

Like LaBrassBanda, the mix for Caravãna Sun is again natural and clean without fault! Throughout the rest of Caravana Sun’s set, we’re treated to the anthemic dance-provokingly addictive ‘Beauty And The Pain’, which features horns from the band member who’s really impressing me, moving swiftly and seamlessly from keyboard to trumpet throughout the set. We also get a splash of yearning and longing with authentic surf-rock melodies in ‘Come Back’ and a collaborative effort with at least one member of LaBrassBanda to keep the party pumping.  All this diversity and feel-good energy is received superbly by everyone in the audience, hence us all cheering/demanding their return to the stage for a one, big-bold energy-filled finale!

I feel these two bands together are a perfect co-headlining recipe! LaBrassBanda brings the energy sky-high, lifting the crowd up with them and keeps them up there, then Caravãna Sun fly the crowd through different frontiers and vibes, while still keeping the energy raised, and giving the crowd more sing-along anthems, rather than party pumpers!

A perfect balance!


Check out Brendan the blind guy’s recent podcast intterview with Ant from Caravãna Sun here.