Seeing as they are the winners of last year’s American Music Award for Best New Artist it was interesting to see how Hot Chelle Rae would be received by their new Australian fans.
They’ve been around for a bit longer than that, their first record Lovesick Electric gaining them attention as far back as 2009, but it’s been predominantly in this past year that their music has been popping up more and more on Australian radio, collecting them double and triple platinum ARIAs for their trouble.
For the Nashville, Tennessee band, this tour marks their third time on an Australian stage but their first as the headlining act, evidence their following here is building steadily.
UK’s Cher Lloyd gave a killer opening performance, getting just as impressive a welcome as the band themselves, which must have been a pretty overwhelming response for the 19-year-old’s first time down under.
Although she hasn’t received a huge amount of radio play to date the crowd had already familiarised themselves with her back catalogue. Perhaps being a contestant on the X Factor (and a favourite of Simon Cowell’s) from the same series as One Direction had something to do with it.
Without any kind of accompaniment or backdrop on stage she did look a little strange up there all on her lonesome when she first walked out in a sparkly dress and matching microphone, but she had the attitude and the voice to fill the space without any trouble.
When the band themselves made an appearance every actioned elicited screams from the crowd, mostly made up of school kids in homemade t-shirts with their mums dancing up the back.
That’s to be expected though from any band whose members are as boyishly good looking as this five piece, combined with the cheeky pop rock they produce, are bound to have a solid younger fan base.
They did tailor their performance to their given demographic, participation wise, engaging in the classic splitting of the floor and having each half of the crowd sing in unison and making love hearts with their hands as they sang about ex-girlfriends and puppy love.
That however is no reason not to take them seriously. They churned through their chart singles and a number of other catchy songs that made up their set, with each number being both well executed and well received.
An unexpected and surprisingly good cover medley of Usher’s “Without You” and Calvin Harris’ “Feel So Close” was added to the mix before an acoustic rendition of the first song they ever wrote together about growing up in the MySpace era, aptly titled “I Wish I Was Emo” – something not many people in the crowd would be old enough to remember.
The enthusiasm from the crowd was at times expressed at an ungodly (and unnecessarily) high pitch, but the reaction was definitely a positive one and nothing to sneer at. Those who hadn’t turned up in band merch had rectified the situation and ensured they were decked out in whatever tee they had just purchased by the end of the evening.
There was nothing to fault in their actual performance and at the end of the day it’s far better to have fans that are enjoying the show than not paying the due attention to it.
