Art Of Fighting
Essen, Germany, 24.03.2006

Heart Translation

Art Of Fighting last played in Essen on the eve of the 2001 ARIA awards back home in their native Australia, where they won the "Oz Grammy" for "best alternative" and couldn't accept the award in person or play the award ceremony (brodcast live on national TV, I'm told) because of their show at the Grend club.

So naturally, they were a bit bummed out that night. This time around they were in a much happier mood and you could tell that by now they are a pretty big band in Australia: So much more confidence, so much more extroverted than last time!

Their music, in case you don't know, often used to be described as slow rock à la Red House Painters and Low in the beginning, nowadays they even get compared to Coldplay and Keane. Which is pretty ridiculous, but it shows that they are opening up a little and not everything they do these days is slow, dark and gloomy. In fact, some of the new songs they previewed at the the Grend were pretty up-tempo, with an anthemic rock quality.

My favorite songs of the night came from their current "Second Storey" album though: The uptempo "Sing Song" and the quite grand, wave-like "Heart Translation". Sespite all the slow songs the show went by in a flash - and they did play for well over 90 mins! (That probably counts as a big compliment.)

Support came from another Australian, Clare Bowditch. She played solo, without her band and seemed to have a little trouble adjusting at first. Not only because she missed her band, but also because she apparently is quite popular back home, and usually plays to much larger and more appreciative crowds. She came across a bit like Australia's answer to Jenny Lewis, with many humourous songs about love and life, such as "Divorcee At 23" and "Miss Unavailability".

A fine night out indeed!

Copyright © 2006 Carsten Wohlfeld