Live Review

The Cat Empire – Birmingham Academy

• 14th Jul 2009

The audience at the Cat Empire gig was almost as diverse as their music, with teenagers dancing alongside people old enough to be their parents and even their grandparents. The Australian group have toured with the late soul-legend James Brown and played at the opening of the Commonwealth Games 2006. From the moment they walked on stage it was easy to hear why – their 2 hour-long set was a tour-de-force of world music.

After a brief greeting from front-man Felix Reibl the brass launched into ‘Fishies’, with Harry Angus’ trumpet solo drawing loud cheers from the audience. The group then switched to laid-back reggae for ‘Days like These’, before moving on to the Eastern influences of ‘The Darkness’.

Their support act – Paprika Balkanicus – who play traditional music from the Balkans, joined the group onstage for ‘The Wine Song’. With the accordion and fiddle, the music sounded fuller than the version on their live album, where the chorus is accompanied solely by brass.
“We’ve done four shows so far, it’s been one of the best [tours] I remember,” said Reibl, just before the gig, “I think the next album is going to do really well over here.”

The Cat Empire’s tribute to Michael Jackson came in their final song, ‘The Chariot’, which merged almost seamlessly into an instrumental version of ‘Billy Jean’. The crowd, amid whoops of delight, provided the vocals.

This was by far the best gig I have ever been to –the band has a unique style, there was not a note off-key and I never once saw the audience stop dancing.

Photo by Christopher Frankland.