We've been hearing in the forums and around the place that the band has been spending a lot of time practising in preparation for the second album, due in early 2005. The latest titbits from the last Spiegeltent performance suggest that they're actually starting recording very soon. There's also a rumour that they may be heading overseas for part of the production! It's reasonably certain that the next album will get a European release so maybe that has something to do with it. Of course, "overseas" could also mean, Tasmania...
The Cat Empire played their last show for a while at the Spiegeltent last night... while perhaps not as awesome as the gig was last week, fun times were still had by all...
Reviews are now trickling into the forums.
If you were there and have a different opinion, a setlist or a comment about the gig, log on and join in the forum madness
Setlist (Not in Correct Order!)
The band played in their home away from home, The Spiegeltent, on Sunday night. Michael has contributed an excellent review and setlist for the gig, which was a real tour through the TCE repertoire.
The next song was introduced by Felix: "The next song has the line 'outside if it was raining then inside there'd be a storm' and it's raining outside, so..." with an audience member yelling "Let's make a storm!" Harry blasted the crowd with the trumpet into, and they burst into How To Explain?
It was raining in Melbourne last night, though not heavily and not nearly enough to dampen the spirits of those queuing outside The Famous Spiegeltent at 10pm. I'd never been to the Spiegeltent before, but when you get inside you find it's quite intimate and has a warm and friendly feel to it. There's a small stage a circular dance floor and booths all around the edge.
It was easy to see this was going to be a special gig as soon as we heard the opening bars of The Return, with Harry quipping "we're going start this off slowly, I'm not going to sing anything for oh, about 45 seconds." I don't need to say anything else about The Return, but it's pretty special due to its rarity alone. The next song was introduced by Felix: "The next song has the line 'outside if it was raining then inside there'd be a storm' and it's raining outside, so..." with an audience member yelling "Let's make a storm!" Harry blasted the crowd with the trumpet into, and they burst into How To Explain?
One thing I immediately noticed was that both Ollie and Ryan had vocal mikes set up in their places and we found out they were for backing vocal and harmonies in various tracks including "ooh ooh's" in The Lullaby and The Rhythm Next the band played "the traditional cover that they never learnt the words to... an older song from back in the Night Cat days', Ala Walee. This was followed by a rocking Days Like These with the audience audibly joining in.
Next we were treated to two songs that I'm pretty sure I haven't heard before. The first was Salt Water, a really happy upbeat catchy melody, I think this will become a live favourite. Harry said for their next album they want to use this as the fadeout track and got the band to fade it out at the end. The second was Sol Y Sombra a more jazzy latin song, which again sounded great. Like Salt Water they just played them through without inserting any live solos, I get the feeling they had been newly rehearsing these two, but they are both catchy, sounded great and will both be looked forward to if included on the next album. They faded out this one too, just for good measure! (I know these are the names of the two tracks as listed on Ollie's setlist. I got Jump's setlist at the end but it listed Sol Y Sombra as just "SOL Y" (scan later), the girl that picked up Ollie's setlist kindly showed it to me to see these tracks before gleefully telling me she was going to sell it -- look out on eBay I guess!)
Next they played Hello easing into it with a sneaky intro. It's kind of funny having half the audience not see it coming and then go crazy when the song suddenly becomes recognisable to them. Well, seeing as they were missing The Empire Horns, about half way through they got the audience to hum the horn part, which sounded pretty damn cool, and then Felix sung the lost verse over the top of this. Fun, fun, fun!
At the end of this three guys somewhere behind me yelled "Felix, you rock!" Felix, smiling, mused allowed that in all his time he'd never had this from three guys! Though maybe, he said, with this song he might live up to that comment, and the band burst into The Sly. I enjoyed this track a lot more last night than at the Forum a couple of weeks back -- it makes a real difference when you can properly make out the words.
Following this they played Protons, Neutons, Electrons and Two Shoes, "an old track that's just got a new middle section." It was again announced as "Two Shoes For Dancing" (so that's why I've written it like that on the setlist). I have to add also that I'm really loving the new whistling in the background of this song. Like many old tracks it seems Two Shoes is still going through constant evolution and it's a great thing.
After this we had The Car Song which again gained a much greater appreciation from me when I heard all the lyrics more clearly. They guys ended the gig on The Chariot, a tradition attributed originally to one of they're earlier Spiegeltent shows.
The encore was The Night That Never Ends while watching some amazing work by one of the Circus Oz performers -- I'll leave it as a surprise incase you get it next week! Overall, it was a brilliant atmosphere, the band were full of life and once again The Cat Empire provided a great nights entertainment.
-Michael
The band said they'd been rehearsing and that it's been a tradition of their's to always play new stuff at the Spiegeltent, so we were treated to a setlist with many new songs:
After a massive tour of... everywhere, the Cats finally made it back home to the city of culture last week...
There's plenty of news and reviews of the Friday and Saturday gigs in the forums...
The boys are now back for a break and to begin work on the second album before playing the Woodford Folk Festival,Falls Festival and Federation Square on New Years Eve
If you've heard any rumours about the second album, have seen the boys out and about or want to catch up on the latest news, check out the forums...