Last Friday night, brother-sister duo Lastlings played their hometown show during their highly anticipated ‘I’ve Got You’ national tour at Gold Coast’s Miami Marketta, along with electronic support acts Daste and PLGRMS.
The day before the Miami Marketta show, Lastlings announced that Gold Coast local trio Daste would be added to the lineup. Playing to an intimate crowd inside the Marketta’s indoor concert stage, Daste gave an incredibly funky and relaxed performance, bringing to mind the sort of sounds from chillwave pop and downtempo synth acts such as Washed Out and Toro Y Moi. Their set included songs from their Palette EP released earlier this year, such as the mellow songs ‘Thinking Of’, ‘Myself’, and their bass-driven jam set highlight ‘Sober’ filled the space with a calmness of mind: whatever worry you came in with, it was transported away with the lull of electric piano amidst soft clicks of the beat and electronic loops. Daste were a chilled-out presence onstage, totally relaxed and present.
Sydney duo PLGRMS were up next, intensifying the mood of the audience. Their brooding sound recalls artists such as Son Lux and the more shadowy and nocturnal in tone recent output from UNKLE’s atmospheric guitar driven tracks. Frontman Jacob Pearson’s crooning voice in track ‘Daylight’ was impressive in its range, while singles ‘Gemini’, and ‘Fools and Their Gold’ had glittering synth choruses with melodic guitar riffs. Their performance was understated and simple, preferring to let the music speak for itself.
After PLGRM’s brooding and atmospheric set, I went over to the merch stand and spoke to some new friends about the sets so far and what they were looking forward to for the rest of the night. Many people had become fans of Lastlings when they supported dance act Rüfüs Du Sol and were ecstatic to come back and see Lastlings. The hall lights dimmed and instrumentalist Josh Dowdle picked up his guitar and took to his corner of the stage at the drum pad, going back and forth between electronic beats and playing guitar throughout the night.
Vocalist Amy Dowdle is a focused presence onstage, enveloped in her long black Matrix-eseque coat that swishes mid-air with her elegant strides. Navy blue and deep violet stage lighting beamed out toward the crowd, lighting up the crowd space in a mysterious glow, like an alien spacecraft ready for takeoff. “Lastlings goes to space”, a recent Instagram caption of theirs read – indeed these futuristic, metallic, and techno vibes accurately set the mood - most of their set consisted of the sounds of the future for Lastlings, as they played a selection of unreleased songs from their upcoming album (hopefully due later this year!) giving us clues as to the direction of sound these songs take. Their more chilled out, dreamy synth based sound of songs from their Verses EP like ‘You’ and ‘Urges’ were peppered amongst the set to unreleased tracks with a dance and techno driven sound, complete with bass heavy four on the floor beats and sprawling synth textures.
Lastlings closed with their latest singles ‘I’ve Got You’ and ‘Déjà vu’, two insanely catchy songs that have been enjoyed by many in their high rotations at Triple J. They have had a brilliant year so far, from touring the United States and playing at Coachella’s DJ boiler room, the Do Lab, to recording new material with Rose Avenue Records label heads Rüfüs Du Sol. I am incredibly excited for whatever comes next for the pair, and it was special to be in the audience for their hometown show. “It’s a beautiful night”, Amy said in between songs. It was obvious how much performing means to the duo, and it was heartwarming to see each act stop and express their support for each other throughout the night, before the lights went up at the end of the show signalling our return from the musical venture to outer space.
Sat 22 Jun - The Night Cat (Melbourne) Fri 28 Jun - Rocket Bar (Adelaide) Thu 4 Jul - The Lansdowne Hotel (Sydney) Fri 5 Jul - Miami Marketta (Gold Coast) Sat 6 Jul - The Foundry (Brisbane) Fri 19 Jul - Splendour In The Grass (Byron Bay)