Splendour Selection #5 - Hungry Kids of Hungary

Well the first semester is over. I'd forgotten about the whole reading and writing aspect of uni, so my time was spread a bit thin over the past few weeks. But that didn't stop the procrastination and I managed to get down to the Metro several times to see some fantastic Aussie bands.

I've already recently spoken about these guys just prior to their national tour, but as I saw them a couple of weekends again on said tour with fellow Whiteboy Javid, I thought I'd put the Hungry Kids of Hungary down as Splendour Selection #5.

First thing's first though. If you're a headline band, don't tour with a support act that sounds better than you. If The Chemist were attending Splendour they would most definitely be my ultimate Splendour pick and Hungry Kids would be quite a few rungs down the ladder. Though I can partly attribute this to the fact that The Chemist didn't have hoards of screaming teenagers hurting my delicate ears, which meant I could actually hear what I came to hear: the music.

And I'm not saying the Hungry Kids are in any way bad. They pack a very fun show with clearly some strong influences from the likes of The Beach Boys and The Beatles.

Their music full of catchy riffs, some fantastic jazz and blues stylings, and the type of sweet harmonies that you start singing, slack-jawed to yourself in a supermarket several days later until you realised you'd forgotten to use your inner monologue and people have started staring.

But there's something about their tendency to veer too much into that familiar, easy listening pop territory that turns me off slightly. So many songs with lyrics about girls. Yeah I get it. I mean in the last 6 months I could have written five albums full of sentimental claptrap about women, the toils of relationships and a broken heart (which is actually just a broken ego, so man the fuck up!) but I didn't. I controlled myself and ended up with only an album's worth of womanly bollocks (and probably only because uni is a bitch for time).
But there is more to life than women, and it's refreshing when bands actually sing about some of these other things in life.

 All the screaming teens probably didn't do much for my thoughts on the gig either. There was enough estrogen in that room to satisfy a Bieber arena show. And, my God, WHY do they have to hurt my ears with their incessant shrill screaming. God I hope I wasn't like that as a teenager.. I think I could have been.. Terrible. And now I'm just sounding old and bitter.

But after all the shit I've just sprouted about Hungry Kids, they most definitely are a band worth seeing and, if you're going to Splendour, it would be a good idea to check them out. They are one of my Splendour Selections after all. They are very new on the scene with only one album out so far. Clearly they have some serious talent and a whole wad of potential. I just hope they bring more of that out as they go along.

They obviously have a lot of fun on stage, which transfers straight to the crowd. Both times I've seen them now they have also ended up getting members from the support bands onto stage to play in some of their songs, culminating in a mass on stage performance towards the end.

Just be prepared to have some serious tinnitus afterwards. Not from the band, just from the screaming girls.

On another note, I went to see Cat Empire at the Metro the weekend before Hungry Kids as part of their 10 year anniversary tour. By far the best gig I have ever seen them play. I wish I'd got to more of them. If you not a fan of Cat Empire, I won't go as far as to say there's something wrong with you personally. I'm sure you're really nice. But you must be one miserable soul if you can't find something good in the band.