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Vivid is not only illuminating the Sydney landscape with brilliant displays of light, colour and technology for the visual senses, the festival is also lighting up the Harbour City with a musical smorgasbord for all tastes. A definite highlight of this feast for the auditory senses took place on Sunday night when Models, Machinations and Dave Mason came together for a one off show at the Enmore Theatre. And, for many in the audience, this was probably the first time they had seen these artists for quite a few years so there was an atmosphere of anticipation building in the room.
Dave, who was vocalist and songwriter with 80s indie pop band The Reels, opened the show with a laid back and nicely paced acoustic set of Reels’ material including their hits ‘This Guy’s in Love With You’, ‘Quasimodo’s Dream’, ‘Pre Fab Heart’ and finishing with ‘Stand and Deliver’. From the moment Mason walked out on stage, the crowd was completely with him, cheering appreciatively for every song. I had only seen Dave perform once prior to this and I have to say I was really impressed with his set on Sunday and it was a good way to kick off the evening.
In stark contrast to the laid back acoustic feel of Dave Mason’s set, the volume shot up a few decibels when 80s synth pop band Machinations hit the stage with ‘Average Inadequacy’ and ‘Machinations of Dance’. Led by vocalist Fred Lonergan, the guys pounded through their set, whipping the audience into a bit of a frenzy. Machinations finished off their set with ‘My Heart’s on Fire’, ‘Pressure Sway’ and ‘No Say in It’.
The crowd’s appetite for more music had been well and truly whet by the time headliners, Models, took to the stage and launched into Happy Birthday IBM and the band certainly delivered. The current line-up of Sean Kelly on lead vocals and guitar, Andrew Duffield on synth and vocals, Mark Ferrie on bass and vocals and Ash Davies on drums, was in top form on Sunday night, reaching into their eclectic catalogue of material to give us a well packaged 90 minute set. Mark Ferrie took over vocals for the sardonic ‘Unhappy’, and Andrew Duffield for the bouncy, tongue-in-cheek ‘That Guy’ and taking us back in time to their 1981 release ‘Cut Lunch’; there was a homage to their friend the late Peter Lillee with his song ‘Drive Thru Love’ and to James Freud with ‘Hold On’ which was re-introduced to Models’ set list at this show. The unmistakable keyboard intro to ‘I Hear Motion’ never fails to get the punters dancing and, the final song of the set, the fast paced ‘Pate Pedestrian’, keeps them going.
After several minutes of very loud chants of ‘More! More’, from a still very hungry room full of music lovers, Models returned to play a couple more tunes in spite of, as Sean told us, the curfew. For the encore, we were treated to the ‘Reggae part of the show’, according to Sean and, to close off the night, Models left us on a high with a brilliant cover of Bowie’s ‘Suffragette City’.
It was certainly a special evening of music and definitely a winner, not just for Vivid, but for everyone there. Judging by the response at the Enmore on Sunday night, the fans want more of this…
by Sharyn Hamey
Models Set List
Happy Birthday IBM
Two Cabs to the Toucan
Local and/or General
God Bless America
Unhappy
Drive Thru Love
Man o’ Action
Cut Lunch
Out of Mind Out of Sight
That Guy
Hold On
Big on Love
I Hear Motion
Pate Pedestrian
Encore
Barbados
Suffragette City
Check out our photos from the show HERE
