The Vanns Live At The Zoo 25/5/23
Written By Robert Hume
Following the release of their second album ‘Last Of Your Kind,' The VANNS kicked off a tour across the east coast, starting in Melbourne and finishing up with last week's show at The Zoo in Brisbane topping off the celebration.
And a celebration it was. Taking over the Something Different Project’s instagram account the day of the show, we witnessed an early morning pool party before heading over to the venue for sound check (with a little muck around in between!)
Joe Mungovan supported the tour. An opening act for The VANNS needs to be energetic and have catchy melodies as well as being able to act as a smooth melting moment before the main show and Joe’s energy fits that so well. Plus also being an indie rocker as well are bonus points too! He opened his set with ‘Autumn Sun,’ followed by a couple others from his 2021 album, and ended on his latest release ‘Handmidowns.’ After the show he mentioned how lovely it had been hearing people sing the new song while on tour.
After finishing his set, it was not long before the stage was full and the lights were back on and shining at four long haired dudes who were ready to rock and roll. The VANNS started off strong with a classic from their debut album, thrashing guitars and hair back and forth to ‘Fake Friends.’ If it was not clear before what this show would entail, it hopefully was now. They then thrusted into ‘True Friends’ before giving an introduction to the show and talking to punters at The Zoo, who lined the floor and walls all the way to the bar.
Speaking to the crowd, Jimmy mentioned that this tour has been an incredible celebration of the new album and that they were going to play every single song during the show. I heard earlier in the night that it was going to be a double length set and that’s always something that I think is exciting to see in a show and it was particularly special on Wednesday night as it was a full on celebration of new and old. However after mentioning that they were sad to be at the end of the album launch, the show had to go on.
‘Thinkin Bout The Nights’ and ‘Making It Out Alive’ were crowd favourites, with ‘Thinkin’ getting energetic claps along with the rhythm of the second half of the song. Standing next to the lighting tech I could see the song name programmed into the control desk and it was always fun seeing him switch to the next song in the set before it was announced on stage to an uproar of buzz. He did an absolutely fantastic job with the lights and had everything pre-set out, aside from one song. The next song that was played during the night was ‘Silhouette’. Mentioning that he had nothing for it when the song started made it was thrilling to see him build up the lights matching the slower paced nature of the song’s start compared to others on the album. I’m not sure if the song having missing program notes on the desk was international but I think the improvisational lights that it caused fitted with the identity of the song so well.
One of my favourite things at any rock gig is when bands move from one song straight into another without a gap, there were a couple moments of this on the night but a stand out moment was halfway through the night where ‘Red Light’ was blended live right into ‘Checking Out.’ It may seem like an easy task as you just continue to play but this practice can only be refined if both songs are starting and ending with a similar key and melody Big ups to the boys on stage here.
Moments throughout the night where wild revelers yelling out from the audience only got more frequent. It was however towards the end where Jimmy instead of announcing the next song yelled back in response saying “You guys are all crazy good at predicting the next songs we’re playing” and followed with starting to play ‘Haunted,’ the song that was just yelled out.
Ending the set on a high, the boys performed ‘Last Of Your Kind,’ and when I first heard this song on release I knew the synth intro would captivate all the sensors through a large enough sound system, and it did not disappoint - while being only a backing track it introduced the song and faded into vocals and drum beat so well. The guitar reprise in the middle was extended upon and you could tell that they were having fun with the song.
However despite ending on such a high, it’s in the best interest for anyone to always want to scream for more and at The Zoo it’s more fun than anywhere else to do so as the wooden floor reverberates from the stomping and cheering. This plus the small side stage made the return on stage quick with the remark “How nice is it to play an almost 20 song set and then people cheer for more.” We were all then treated to a stripped back ‘Jules Said,’ which started solo but quickly turned into a calm choir winding down the night.
You can check out and listen to ‘Last Of Your Kind’ now and if you missed the shows, the boys are playing at Splendour In The Grass in under two months on the 21st of July at the North Byron Parklands.
Full gallery by Gabi Rankine can be found here:
