Free gigs have their pros and cons – an interesting and diverse crowd of rowdy people were at Transit Bar on the Friday night of Flyying Colours’ gig.

Over the residual squealing of a collection of girls dressed as superheroes, Canberra’s own Myriad Ways’ first notes rung out. Their sound was built on a foundation of layered guitars reminiscent of music that might be found on a Kill Bill soundtrack, with ethereal guitar riffs that soared above it. Their instrumental songs were strong and inspiring, laden with feeling. The singer apologised for his weak singing (due to being sick), so we decided not to judge, and they focussed on playing as many instrumental tracks as possible.

Canberra act Bruges followed up with their short, punchy rock songs that got straight to the point. They sounded tight and well-practiced, and punched out a rendition of Ain’t no Sunshine that was both endearing and impressive and a definite highlight of the night. They had a big sound for a three piece, and a certain level of class.

The expectations of Melbourne band Flyying Colours were for psychedelic songs that would transport us to another place entirely, wrapping us up in the joy of their swirling melodies. The resulting performance was quite different from expected. Instead of transporting us to the 70s, we found ourselves stuck in 90s grunge, more reminiscent perhaps of The Pixies.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Opening with Bugs from their EP, there was a definite energy pulsing around the stage, as well as an all-around deep sense of feeling.
Lead singer, Brodie Brümmer, spent most of the night hidden behind hair that entirely covered his face. After most songs, he ‘whooped’ for himself and the band in a fairly strange fashion, which left the audience confused as to whether they should join in or watch the odd show he was providing.

The set highlight, single Wavygravy really took off. Whilst lacking certain subtleties of the recorded version, the song was alive and it moved and vibrated through the audience.

The audience reacted enthusiastically to the energy created by the band, and the floor directly in front of the stage was constantly full of people dancing and swaying. The dynamic of male-female vocals is always welcome, and although some more harmonies wouldn’t have gone astray, the effect of the higher voice added a lot to the overall sound.

The night ended with Brümmer throwing himself on the ground with a crash, and writhing about in what seemed like an uncontrolled fashion as he belted out the final few scratchy guitar chords. Impressively however, he seemed to somehow carefully avoid all leads, amps, pedals and drum kits, so it clearly wasn’t his first time.

It was all very rock’n’roll.

Flyying Colours were chaotic. There was lots of noise; screeching guitars, squealing amps, wailing singing, and mostly entirely inaudible speech between songs. But they were fun, and a great grungy live act; a very fitting partnership for the general Transit Bar vibe.