4ZZZ launched its glorious tradition of counting down listeners' 100 favourite songs on New Year's Day 1977. More than 10 years later, 2JJJ in Sydney (which employed many ex-Zed staff) began conducting its own Hot 100. Because 4ZZZ held the rights to the name Hot 100, there was a little bit of legal biffo when TripleJ became a national broadcaster, so they changed the name of their survey to the "Hottest 100".
MEW @ The Triffid
Danish sweethearts, Mew, started the Australian leg of their Visuals world tour in Brisbane on Sunday night down at the Triffid. The group were supported by Australia’s very own Closure in Moscow, who brought plenty of energy for the night sharing new material from their upcoming record.
Closure’s vocalist Christopher de Cinque had enough power in his voice to light up everyone in the room as he got the crowd going with a variety of vocal effects and dance moves. The band played a nice mix of older fan favourites like Kissing Cousins all the way up to brand new and currently untitled songs. The performance was extremely tight and entertaining and demonstrated how polished a band can be with over a decade on the road.
Mew’s latest album, Visuals, lived up to its name with a variety of colours, characters, and other visuals from various music videos accompanying the band. The immediately identifiable voice of Jonas began to flow softly through the air surrounded by swirling guitars and synths - Mew was here. The self described mix between “feelings and thinking” music had the room in a trance as the band went back and forth between hits from 2003’s “Frengers” to this years “Visuals”. The images on the screen above them got more elaborate - floating through space, running in the woods, and being joined by a rabbit playing the violin.
Their hour long set came to an end before anyone could even take in all that they had seen. It was signalled with 2003’s fan favourite “156”, and the departing lyrics “Don’t you just love goodbyes?”. They finally launched into “Comforting Sounds”, their 9 minute ethereal magnum opus, to play the set out.
A fantastic night at the Triffid was had, with a great mix of energy and emotions shared by the crowd. Mew have the rest of their Australian tour to go and everyone is in for a treat!
Daniel Barter
Zed Facts
