In 2019, international sensations Milky Chance took time off touring to finish their third studio album Mind the Moon. With its release late last year, the German group has taken the more electronic sound of the new album and curated a fast-paced, energetic live show. Performing at the Falls Festival in Byron Bay over New Year’s Eve, the band have stayed down under to perform a series of sideshows for those who missed Falls. Performing at the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney on the 8th January, Milky Chance showed that they are not only excitingly unique but also genuinely talented.

Supporting act Kim Churchill opened the show with his dance-ready pop style and folk sensibilities. With a similar sound to the folk inspired Milky Chance, Churchill was an entertaining warm up for the crowd. However, the second Milky started, it was clear that the laidback reggae/folk side of the band was left with the previous album. With LED boards basking the group in rich green and red lights, Milky Chance opened with three heavy hitters from the latest album, which included “Fallen”, “Right from Here” and lead single “Fado”. During the latter, singer/guitarist Clemens Rehbein and bassist Philipp Dausch lowered their instruments and took to the keys and MIDI controllers for an electronic solo that bordered on a techno set. Special mention has to go to Clemens’ performance, which was not only energizing but also flawless when compared to the studio version.

This moment was a good representation of the concert as a whole, with Clemens running around and forcing the audience to match his energy. Equal parts because of the electronic sounding new album and equal parts because of the Hordern Pavillion’s outstanding audio set up, the entire concert was more of a bass thumping electronic set than the relaxed, acoustic guitar heavy music would’ve suggested. This gave Milky Chance the opportunity to show off some of the new material, with relatively unknown tracks like “Daydreaming”, “Oh Mama” and “The Game” still invigorating the crowd. There was a healthy inclusion of past hits to keep fans engaged, like “Cocoon”, “Down By the River”, and “Flashed Junk Mind”, with “Stolen Dance” proving to still be an immortal track.

The crowd loved every minute of it, singing along to the tracks they knew and bouncing up and down to the ones they didn’t. Milky Chance were effective in pacing the set so that the audience were offered a few lulls to recover between the big hits. This included two soft, romantic songs. Clemens’ acoustic performance of 2013’s “Loveland” showed the sensitive side to the heartthrob front man while the sad, lo-fi hip hop derived “Window” from Mind the Moon was a cathartic end to the night as blue lights washed over the now exhausted audience. The finale included some massive throwbacks to Milky Chance’s first album, Sadneccessary. “Running” became enveloped in the thickness of the Hordern’s bass, making it sound almost like a psytrance track, and the over the top performance of “Sweet Sun”, which involved a harmonica duel between Kim Churchill and a member of Milky Chance, ensured that everyone went home happy.

Milky Chance’s live show was unexpectedly less laidback than fans of their chill vibe would expect, but the heavy electronic bass combined with the genuine skill of the talented band, and in particular singer Clemens, resulted in an early contender for concert of the year. Be sure to check out Mind the Moon, available here: https://milky-chance.lnk.to/mindthemoon