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Tuesday, 3rd of August, 2010
The Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Last time Mumford & Sons played Sydney it was at the significantly smaller Oxford Art Factory. Six months later, and given the time for their Triple J Hottest 100 victory to sink in, the grandiose indie-pop group have sold out two consecutive nights at the Enmore Theatre. Rags to riches much?
Liveguide took Toyota's Rukus down to the venue before the show.
The appeal is immediately clear: this London four-piece are unflinchingly sincere, delivering the type of guts-on-sleeve rock that has dominated mainstream indie music for much of the last decade. As if to confirm the sincere approach they take on record, the group look glad to be on stage, fully energised despite having played two shows in Melbourne and the Splendour in the Grass festival in the space of half a week.
Needless to say, the Enmore is totally packed, and the supporting artists – Alberta Cross and Sydney’s Boy and Bear – both attract reasonable, if slightly unenthused, responses. It’s when the London four-piece mount the stage that the room is electrified. While it’s only been six months since their last tour of Australia with the Laneway festival, the group seem to have graduated from hot up-and-comers to confident world-conquerers. Whether you can conquer the world with country inflected indie rock is beside the point, because Mumford and Sons seem to have created their own world anyway.
Part of their appeal probably lies in the charisma of Marcus Mumford. Often bands as low-key as this are happy to take the stage, play the songs and get the hell out. Not Mumford, and despite not being especially effusive between songs, he has a magic – a magnetic energy – that cannot be ignored. The versatility of Mumford’s “sons” is impressive as well, with the line-up being fairly fluid in terms of who plays what.
The band have toured relentlessly since the release of the 2009 debut ‘Sigh No More’, but they still perform these songs with enthusiasm and grace, with tracks such as the title track and ‘Little Lion Man’ exuding a fresh sense of beauty in a communal environment. It made you want to turn and hug the person next to you, though on a low-key Tuesday night that might land you in jail.
by Rachel Lawrence
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