Live review: Falls in Sydney
Somethingyousaid.com’s Terri Prior checked out Sydney-based Falls on the last of three sell-out nights at the Hollywood Hotel and it was simply a dream. Here’s why she dares you to fall in love with Falls:
Due to release their debut album, OMAHA, on 2nd October the pair jet off this week to start touring grand old America but this evening it was back to their humble beginnings and a night to celebrate.
I’ve been a fan of this whimsical duo since the release of their EP Into the Fire early last year but their first ‘big break’ came impressing Icelandic quirky folk group Of Monsters and Men. The band were not happy with the original selection of supporting acts lined up by Australian tour promoters, and this Sydney-based duo blew them out the water with a chance listen to a local radio station and stole the supporting gig.
However if you speak to either of them, they will tell you it was right here at the Hollywood Hotel that they got their first real platform. Mel relives the moment she asked the proprietors for the chance at a regular slot, and them politely declining (!). Never one to give up she popped back in next week and managed to convince the pair to a trial at the very least. And thank the lord they did. Two years later and a weekly Wednesday night slot meant that so many of their songs were written and road tested in our very own Surry Hills establishment.
I feel like I am here amongst friends and family – an air of celebration in a cosy surrounding. It feels reminiscent of the warmth of a Christmas Eve back in an old local English boozer. And I feel privileged.
Their sound is the right amount of pensive melancholy, romance and reality that makes this duo enchantingly honest to listen and enjoy. Their first EP was full of the love, the fights, the mess, the spark, the connection between two people, as if a hauntingly open love letter of a modern day relationship and its surroundings.
Tonight was about the right mixture of new and old. Their new material developing within the indie folk paradigms where you can see influences of their recent travels. From their time with Of Monsters and Men to good old Nashville adding a flash of soft country rock and blues. The magic in this pair is their ability to write songs, meaningful songs, as much as it is to hear them delivered. Moving on from the melancholy relationship between two people, their new stuff explores wider stories about and between people they have meet along the way, whether it’s talking to them and feeling inspired or seeing them from afar and painting an imaginative story around them. Their storytelling is poetic and beautifully captured against a melodic backdrop that almost makes you want to float away.
This duo compliments each other perfectly in writing, in recording and on stage where it all comes to life. Think Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham. Think Lennon & Yoko. Think Cash & Carter. Simon with his old rockabilly aura and Mel, the indie pixie, adding the narrative and those cute barefoot kicks.
For a girl who loves ‘love’ in all its real life forms, this duo and their whimsical folk storytelling have a place in my playlist for a long time to come. That being said, boys do not be put off by the ‘Mills and Boon’ vibe of this article. The new stuff moves further afield, with an indie folk rock country edge. Please I beg you, give it a listen. And hey, the magic of their old stuff will work a treat for a date night, if you catch my drift (wink wink).
Review and second photo by Terri Prior. Top photo stolen with love from the Falls Facebook page.
