Deloris
The Annandale, Sydney

Is there such thing as a distinctly Melbourne band? In a country where the only interstate rivalry to speak of is played out on a football field and the East-West divide is yet to be chronicled in any hip-hop song of note, such regional peculiarity seems unlikely. But if there is any band that could have only come from the rainy city, Deloris appear to fit the bill. Perhaps the grass is always greener to a lifelong Sydneysider, but there does some to be a sense of their moody and literate home city that comes through in their meticulously crafted music. These are songs that handsomely reward repeat listens. Not that it’s all inaccessible chin-stroking, as listening to the taut, hook-filled ‘Loup Garou’ makes one wonder how on earth this song was not a hit.

On a night that saw headliners Bluebottle Kiss cancel due to illness, the four-piece run through a focused set including the dreamy ‘Down the Mountain’, showcasing a more pastoral side, and a typically passionate ‘Everything Ever’, which has the enigmatic appeal of a Neutral Milk Hotel song. Like one of Jeff Mangum’s tunes, you’re pulled along by the tumbling stream of imagery, though you’d be hard pressed to say what exactly it’s about. When singer Marcus Teague tries to explain that one song is about a favourite pair of pants, we know there’s a more mysterious muse at work here. Next time the band ventures up the Hume, be there to find out.

by Daniel Herborn