Tuesday nights aren’t known for being the most raucous nights of the week. As I stood in line for Milky Chance and Amy Shark at the Tivoli last Tuesday, surrounded by wearied uni students and collections of colleagues fresh from clock-off, I too was already feeling the approaching hump of Hump Day. I flashed my ID and rested my work-weary knees against a table, praying that the night would be worth the fight against my fatigue.

From the moment Amy Shark took the stage, it was. Donning her signature Adidas sporting jacket and half-up, half-down high bun hair, Shark was commissioned with a difficult task— energising the masses that zombie-shuffled between the bar and the floor. Shark approached the microphone with nothing short of her token honesty and humility— a hint shy, a bit bold. By her third song, Blood Brothers, musical energy was cascading in waves through the venue.

While only new to the tour game, Shark is as steady live as she is on record. In fact, the spirit of performance lifted her to new vocal heights that evening, bringing confident variation from her recordings. The songs were interjected with Shark’s idiosyncratic banter— a wise choice from an up-and-coming local artist. But the game changed again when she picked up a guitar— her preferred third limb, a hollowbody electric Fender. The backing from her support musicians dropped away, and the lights came down on Shark alone, and she backed her oldest release Spits on Girls with a melodic indified cover of Eminem’s Superman and an unreleased original. Amy Shark alone with her guitar is moon-landing levels of captivating, Her control she has over a voice made for melodies of heartbreak is insane. To borrow the words of my neighbour in the crowd that night, “she may be little, but she is fierce”. Shark capped off her set with her new single Weekends and the double-platinum winning Adore. Both were faster than their recordings, and both elevated the venue’s vibe instantly— and by the look on Shark’s face, she knew it. While only playing support for Milky Chance that night, Amy Shark justified her status as a headliner in her upcoming Night Thinker EP tour.

By the time Milky Chance took the Tivoli, the black drapes that had decorated Shark’s stage fell away to reveal great circle of pulsing lights, rhythmically fuelled by Milky Chance’s signature percussive drive and layered guitar licks (plus some positively filthy harmonica). Lead singer Clemens Rehbein somehow lost none of his clear, yet rough reediness from recording. In fact, Milky Chance live was very much like Milky Chance with headphones on, only with more earth-shaking bass, more sweaty bodies, and more visual energy from the band members themselves (save for a few well-humoured false starts). Perhaps this should be unsurprising— the first Milky Chance record was produced with little more than a Macbook, a microphone, and a guitar. The band put forward a technically unrelenting, high production value performance. There’s something quite irreplaceable in energy about the two frontmen bouncing around the stage while magaing to pull off impressive (and impressively catchy) guitar riffs. On the rare occasions when Rehbein spoke, it came out in spurts of sound and steady, but uncertain and endearing English. The other band members, Philipp Dausch and Antonio Greger, didn’t speak at all. I realised how much Australians in particular supplement music with commentary and discourse, and how much I’d come to expect it. It took a bit for me to just allow the German trio to let their music speak. For Milky Chance, it’s clearly about the sound, and not about them. While it means we miss out on constantly seeing that personal narrative, it lets the trio put forward some bloody good music.

There’s not a band on earth quite like Milky Chance. When it comes to their live shows, this is a two-edged sword. If you don’t dig it in recording, hearing Milky Chance live will probably not change your mind. But for the masses that find joy in their quirky groove, their live shows will probably set their world on fire. It’s an 80s dance party, a noisy and garbled sing-along, a visual treat, and a damn different vibe from a regular Tuesday night. Their poppy hits Cocoon and Stolen Dance turn a dancefloor into a crashing sea of arms and bodies, but the folkier tunes such as Cold Blue Rain and Indigo will still send hips a-rocking and sparse arms a-lifting. No mean feat for a Tuesday night. Both Amy Shark and Milky Chance are good value musical entertainment for any day ending in Y.

Full photo gallery of the show (courtesy of Kathryn Farmer) can be found here.