The best night outs happen when you say you’re only going to have one drink but somehow you get home at 4am with a stolen traffic cone that you end up spooning, the healthy sized crowd at postcards were treated to the musical equivalent with currently lesser known but future stars Lunas and Mauwe.
Starting the night were soulful supergroup Lunas comprising of members of previous local legends. Lunas used their skills to their advantage to create a carefully thought out sound and style lead by a Rhodes piano and singer Emily conducting the emotions of the mesmerized audience. During the midpart of the set Lunas told the crowd they would recognise the next song before boldy playing Britney Spears ‘Oops I Did it Again’ stripped down to their arrangement of just Rhodes, electric guitar and vocals showing their ability to diversify from anthemic tracks such as earlier crowd-pleaser ‘Human’. Emily held the crowd baring her soul and self-deprecation in song ‘Use Your Body’ with sass and seduction it felt like Lunas are only a few songs away from writing their own Beyonce ‘Single Ladies’. For a band with well toured members creating a complete sound it would have been interesting to hear the songs with less backing track which felt overused at times. Lunas left the crowd wanting more but wondering whether Mauwe would be able to complete with their crowd-pleasing performance.
Watching Mauwe was like watching the world’s greatest karaoke, a pair performing their indie pop tunes note perfect whilst drunk on appreciation of their own fans. With just a MIDI sample pad and 2 microphones they were visually sparse compared with Lunas but their energy filled the room winning over a rarely seen singing midweek crowd. Lead singer Portia chatted with the crowd coy and overwhelmed at their fans adoration uniting everyone breaking the divide between performer and audience. Mauwe’s sound has a welcoming feeling of familiarity in places musically emulating Jack Garratt with a female fronted bubblegum pop twist. Mauwe use light-hearted instrumentation in an oxymoronic manner hiding on first listen darker lyrical topics, songs like ‘Strangers’ tackling self-destructive love and letting go. Rarely with new bands the biggest criticism is that Mauwe left the crowd literally begging for more, where will we see them next?
