Metro Theatre, Sydney
Tuesday April 3, 2018 :
BØRNS – highly mysterious 26 year old glam pop visionary by the name of Garreth Borns. Widely known for his extremely stylish, Gucci clad on-stage presence and his highly acclaimed second album Dopamine, which hasn’t left my “25 most played” iTunes playlist since its release date back in 2015. BØRNS sky-rocketed to fame down under joining Halsey on tour in support of the aforementioned album. This year he joined forces with Lana Del Rey, not only releasing a song with the broody sounding songstress, but also joining her on an arena tour in Australia.
Borns’ two solo shows in honour of his third album – Blue Madonna are hardly enough for the fans to be satisfied, but we’d take what we can get. Sydney leg of the mini tour was a post-Easter long weekend mid week treat. The crowd was majorly consisting of young adults and teens, dressed like the cast of MTV shows and and high on dopamine (pun intended).
Melbourne based singer-songwriter & producer Woodes was a warm up act on the night – while her clever layered electro-pop was easy to listen, backed by two keyboards and two drum kits, Elle Graham put some of the audience in a shamanic-hippie-induced coma. The crowd seemed unenthusiastic and didn’t seem to pay all that much attention to stage. While getting high rotation on Triple J and successful SXSW debut, Woodes most recognisable songs ‘Origami’ and ‘Run For It’ are potential crowd pleasers – maybe for a different kind of crowd though.
When BØRNS finally took the stage at an early-ish hour of 9:30pm the crowd went crazy. Screaming and stomping to the start of ‘God Save Our Young Blood’ (2017) possibly to make a statement and a nod to Lana Del Rey, who guests on vocals; the song sounds more like Del Rey’s nostalgic odes to summer nights than classic BØRNS infused glam pop. The band consisting of Kristen Gleeson-Prata on drums, Emily Moore slaying the keys, Hayley Jane Batt providing bass lines, who you might recognise if you ever heard of Freelance Whales, plus Connor Doyle and his sleek guitar skills, especially on ‘Faded Heart’.
I, personally, applaud BØRNS – a change in line up and female dominance in band members makes me appreciate the act so much more, as it’s still rare to see such in the music industry. The above mentioned ‘Faded Heart’ (2017) saw the crowd singing along, Borns reaching out to front row punters and accepting a single rose from one of his dedicated fans, which was truly a special gesture. Bathing in green light in his salmon coloured pants, engaging with the audience every now and again ‘American Money’ (2015) was a special kind of guitar jam, with the band dancing along so energetically, almost stealing the show from their frontman – “throwing me that shade, like i’m not cool enough” – sexy sounding lyrics and angelic voice make ’Second Night of Summer’ a bit more noticeable live than on the record, again backing band make great impact on this one.
Blue Madonna is a break up record, unlike Dopamine, so hearing such songs as: ‘I Don’t Want You Back’ and ‘Bye-Bye Darling’ makes for a huge change when Borns and the band sway into an upbeat ’We Don’t Care’.
’10 000 Emerald Pools’ (2015) is a fan favourite single, and the microphone is passed to the crowd for the chorus, while ‘Holy Ghost’ (2015) had an angelic spotlight placed on Borns himself – with his soothing vocals you can’t help but hum along, he made a few jokes between songs and told a fascinating story about his tarot reading experience, where Borns was told he’d find love in Australia – well what can i say? Australia is totally infatuated by you tonight – ‘Supernatural’ (2017) seemed like a great fit of a song in this case. Progressing into ‘Blue Madonna’ (2017) the title track of recent album – Borns’ voice gravitated towards the sugary falsetto – being a somewhat fan of ’80s glam rock, guest vocals on the album are provided by Lana Del Rey again, while live – by the backing band. While lyrically the album itself is a fair bit depressing and melancholic, musically it’s almost on the same shelf as life-loving The Pop Underground by Andrew McMahon and Currents by Tame Impala.
‘Past Lives’, ‘Man’ and ‘Iceberg’ are all well received, but a real treat was ’Tension’ (Interlude) which the band mashed up with Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ – though hardly anyone in the crowd recognised the song that made queen of pop Madonna famous. And of course ‘Electric Love’ brought the house down and made the whole crowd dance and sing along in a sweaty glistening of blue lights. Saying goodbye and finishing an hour and a half long set with ’Sweet Dreams’ was a great move. The set list was a perfectly balanced euphoria, nostalgia and melancholy, consisting of mostly new songs but did not disappoint as older hits weren’t at all lacking.
In conclusion, if you were raised on glam-pop/rock and remember the MTV generation rise in the ’90s and also wouldn’t mind to move your bodies to the sweet sexy summer feels infused synth-pop, Borns will provide all of the above.
For some reason I felt like i wanted the show to be at a luna park of a fete, with cotton candy in one hand and a fruity drink in the other, sporting a pair of flower shaped sunglasses and BØRNS playing – perfection. Thank you, Borns and your lovely band for making my night a happy, dopamine infused one!
Reviewer + Photographer : Annette Geneva
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