Live review: City & Colour (for The Music Network)

07 April 2011

by Poppy reid

Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Tuesday April 6 

Emotion and zealous excitement filled Enmore theatre on Tuesday night as City & Colour took the stage for his first Australian headlining performance.

Canadian singer/songwriter, Dallas Green was, until just a few years ago, better known as the euphonious singer of post-hardcore bandAlexisonfire. But as he stood placid with his acoustic guitar before a sea of screaming girls and intentional doppelgangers, this solo tour has clearly been a long time coming.

Opening with Forgive Me, Green planted himself to the right of his touring band, a testament to his humility. “I gotta tell ya, I've been meaning to do this for a long time,” he said. “Lets sing this one together okay?”

Guitarist Scott Remila sang backing vocals on The Death Of Me as Green’s dulcet voice reverberated through the theatre, drowning out even the most tenacious wolf whistler. He then comically talked us through the call and response for his track Waiting, telling us not to bother if we thought we might fuck it up.

Older tracks like Sam Malone, Body In A Box and Save Your Scissors sent the crowd into hysterics, Green even took the time to talk one kid out of confessing her love for him. The latter track of the aforementioned was not only one of the most striking sing-along’s but also the most emotional; tiny baths filled up behind the glassy eyes of nostalgic crowd members.

It was definitely a night of firsts for this Sydney audience as Green premiered two tracks from his upcoming third album, Little Hell. Both songs, Silver & Gold and O’ Sister were received with devoted ears, some committed them to memory, others recorded them on their phones to post on YouTube. Green gets the last laugh however, as he played a completely different version of Silver & Gold than what will appear on the album.

“This is another one of those basement songs where if somebody said 'in few years, a few, few years you're going to go to Australia and it’s going to punch them right in the face',” Green said before pausing. “I would have said ‘you're lying, stop lying to me’, but here we are.” The audience hung on every delicate chord progression of final tracks Day Old Hate, I’m In Delaware, As Much As I ever Could and Sleeping Sickness.

Green and his band exited the stage before being literally stomped, cheered and begged back on for encore tracks, Comin’ Home andSometimes. If this introductory performance of the City & ColourAustralian tour is anything to go by, future audiences are in for a delightful experience.