Photos by Josh Herwitt & Justin Yee // Written by Josh Herwitt //
Miami Horror with De Lux //
The Independent – San Francisco & The Roxy Theatre – West Hollywood, CA
June 3rd, 2015 (SF) & June 5th, 2015 (LA) //
With the release of their sophomore record All Possible Futures this past April, Australian indietronica outfit Miami Horror are back on the road for the first time in a long time. Amid a 17-date tour across the U.S. with LA disco-rock band De Lux, which also have a brand-new album on the horizon, the Melbourne five-piece left its mark in SF and LA last week with sold-out shows at both The Independent and The Roxy Theatre.
The capacity crowds were a testament to how well Miami Horror have built a loyal fan base off the buzz that their 2010 debut Illumination generated, but as bandleader Benjamin Plant told Showbams in a recent interview, this was still their “reintroduction tour.”
Yet, from the way it commanded the crowd in SF, you wouldn’t have known that the band had eaten psychedelic mushrooms (yes, really!) before stepping on stage. And from the way it had fans singing along to every word in LA — its new home after leaving Melbourne close to three years ago — two days later, you wouldn’t have thought that it has been almost five years between the band’s two LPs. After all, in this day and age where streaming services have come to rule the music industry and artists are now forced to continually churn out new material in order to tour and make ends meet, that’s quite a long layoff for a group that’s only other release, the five-track EP entitled Bravado, came out in November 2008.
In many ways though, it felt like not much time had passed at all as Josh Moriarty (guitars, vocals) and Aaron Shanahan (co-production, guitar, synthesizer, vocals), with the sweat beads rapidly dripping down their faces, climbed on Kosta Theodosis’ drum kit and a few floor speakers at different points during both shows to pump the fans up — if they could actually be pumped up anymore than they already were. It just goes to show that after all this time, Miami Horror haven’t lost their charm one bit.
Molly Kish & Justin Yee contributed to this report.
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