LANY, Culture Wars @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 3/11/2024
On a warm Sunday night, Adelaide welcomed back American pop-rock powerhouse LANY for one of the final dates of their A Beautiful Blur Tour. With open arms and excitement, fans lined the streets around the Hindley Street Music Hall hours before doors, all in the hope to get up close and personal with the band. Coming off the back of career high capacity shows in Asia, as well as dates in Australia & New Zealand, there was palpable anticipation from Adelaide fans to experience A Beautiful Blur.
With the long line of fans piling in from doors, the room was jam packed by the time Austin Texas’ Culture Wars took the stage. Splitting their time in Australia between supporting LANY and Amy Shark, the five-piece opened the night with a colourful mix of energetic rock and slower ballads. With a personal connection to Australia through singer Alex Dugan’s wife, they set the tone of the evening with tracks such as Miley, Slowly & Heaven.
As the night edged closer to 9pm, a wall of synth slowly crept up its volume and a curtain was placed to cover the stage. The synth wave increased until the lights went down, and the show started. To loud screams, each band member’s silhouette appeared against the curtain, until a familiar voice counted their first song. The curtain dropped to monstrous applause as LANY opened the night with the euphoric anthem You! Fans wasted no time to start singing as they hung to every word, throwing back their voices (and flowers) back at singer Paul Klein as he jumped down a runway through the crowd.
Wasting no time, LANY transitioned into their set with fun hits ex i never had and up to me. Obviously feeling the love in the room, Paul assured the crowd that this might not only be the best show in Australia, but also that it would be the best night of everyone’s life. The crowd kept moving and jumping non-stop through It Even Rains in LA and I Pray from LANY’s latest A Beautiful Blur. The latter was coat tailed with a small interlude praying that Adelaide falls in love with the band. Still with no clear breaks between songs, to test the crowds’ vocal cords, the mood was slowed down to play feelsy ballad somewhere, that all fans sung in unison.
Finally with a break in play, Paul addressed the crowd welcoming and thanking everyone for coming out. He explained that the band has been on tour for an actual year and that there are only three shows remaining. Looking out to the crowd, Klein said “I never really know what to expect… I wasn’t sure what Adelaide was going to be like, but it… fucking… rocks”. The backings around Paul picked up again and the band burst into hit careless filling the room with beach balls for the bouncing crowd to play with.
From here the hits came fast as it felt each song blended into the next seamlessly with lively lighting and LED visuals. With Klein as the room’s therapist, an expressive audience went on an emotional rollercoaster. Be it the anger fuelled middle finger anthem Congrats, or the sad I Don’t Want to Love You Anymore or the adorable smashes dancing in the kitchen and pink skies, there was something for everyone.
To make a beautiful night more picturesque, a message on the screen asked fans to turn on their phone lights for ballad alonica. This moment really highlighted Paul’s vocal and piano ability as he held the room in the palm of his hand. Held back by nothing, you really got a sense Paul was giving it his all. To me this highlighted his resilience as a performer, feeling his confidence only a few months of recovery on from a serious scooter accident in June. Klein’s vocal ability is also highlighted in a spiritual new rendition of Hericane that sent goosebumps throughout the room.
The hits never stopped with young and veteran fans serviced expertly. With a clear narrator in all LANY projects, the band are able to blend songs with ease. They even played a few mashups of new and old songs such as Super Far and their widespread collaboration with Lauv, Mean It. This was particularly fun moment with the beach balls reemerging and drummer Jake Goss serving up his ever-lively percussive prowess.
With an audience backed choir for every song, Adelaide’s vocals were on show the whole night. This was highlighted during ‘Cause You Have To as Paul stepped away from a chorus and took in the unified voice. At the song’s conclusion a quick lightning filled transition took us to Thru These Tears, which saw the crowd reach a new volume peak. The main set drew to a close with tearful title track of LANY’s sophomore record, Malibu Nights. Hindley Street Music Hall continued to sing as the band left the stage to blackness.
As the crowd waited in anticipation, a prerecorded poetic message from Paul played over the speakers. His message intensified until the band rejoined the stage for their encore opening their last hurrah with ILYSB. This was easily the loudest the crowd was all night as you could tell some people had waited all night for this moment. The night concluded with the leading single of A Beautiful Blur, XXL. This was a perfect ending to a wonderful set which saw the band take to the runway while Klein took to the floor to connect with his faithful. In seemingly disbelief of the crowd, Paul gave his final thank you and left Adelaide hanging by claiming, “I didn’t know if we’d be back here, but we’ll definitely be back…” as the band bowed and left the stage for the final time.
If you’re lucky you can catch LANY on their final two stops in Sydney and Brisbane to close A Beautiful Blur Tour.
Live Review By David Kerr