The year 2010 simultaneously feels not that long ago and a long time ago.
This was something many punters grappled with as they made their way into Melbourne's Northcote Theatre (31 May) for the first night of two in Naarm with Cloud Control celebrating 15 years of their 2010 debut album, 'Bliss Release'.Nostalgia filled the air of the grand surrounds of Northcote Theatre, the pre-show playlist helped fuel this with the likes of Snakadaktal getting a play, another band that had success in the early 2010s but hasn't been active for sometime now.
The funny thing is some of the bands from that era have continued through till now and wouldn't elicit such a nostalgic response, but the combination of the fact an early career album is being celebrated and they haven't released an album for eight years leads to this being the overwhelming feeling for the evening.
After creating a significant buzz for themselves in recent years, with multiple overseas tours and sold-out local shows, the lively local band Delivery opened proceedings. They began and ended with singles 'Operating At A Loss' and 'Digging The Hole', from their latest album 'Force Majeure'.
Sharing vocals and with knowing smiles and laughter shared onstage, Delivery are a band on the rise who are having fun whilst seeing themselves play larger stages and getting big support slots, such as an upcoming Franz Ferdinand gig.
Delivery's sound is firmly planted in the garage-punk genre with a sound indebted to bands from the early 2010s such as Eddy Current Suppression Ring and UV Race, but you can hear they have many varied influences which is distilled in their sound.
Although their sound don't immediately match up with Cloud Control, the high-energy garage punk works in a way to get the crowd excited for what's to come.
Anticipation started to build in the crowd as CC band members set up on stage. When they make it to the stage for the main event, Cloud Control were greeted with rapturous applause.
Opening with a favourite 'Dojo Rising' from 2013's 'Dream Cave', and although singer-guitarist Alister Wright stuttered and forgot the lyrics early on, the crowd was very forgiving and was clearly just thrilled to have an early 2010s indie staple back onstage.
Continuing with fan favourites, Cloud Control pulled out 'Rainbow City' from 2017's 'Zone' that was sandwiched between another 'Dream Cave' track, 'The Smoke, The Feeling'. Sing-alongs started early and continued through the entirety of the set.
After playing a short set of much loved songs not taken from 'Bliss Release', it was time for the band to get into the set proper. Playing the album in full, keyboardist and singer Heidi Lenffer took the opportunity to use the opening moments of 'Meditation Song #2 (Why, Oh Why)' to ground the audience and provided a heartfelt acknowledgement of Country for both the land we are all on watching them play – Wurundjeri Country (Melbourne) and the land where Cloud Control originate and where the album was created Dharug and Gundungurra Country (Blue Mountains).
Although dormant for much of the last decade, and playing many songs they haven't performed live since their early years, Cloud Control are such talented musicians that none of this seemed to matter, which became apparent very early on in the set with 'There's Nothing In The Water We Can't Fight' setting the groove and harmonising vocals together.
They had the crowd enthralled and time is merely a construct anyway.
'Gold Canary' is a much adored song in their discography and was a true highlight of the set. The crowd, who had been clapping along to most songs to this point, started stomping to the beat. There were other raucous moments as well as some more gentle reflective moments such as 'Just For Now' and 'Hollow Drums'.
'Hollow Drums' was a particularly vulnerable moment for Alister and Heidi, as the other band members Ulrich Lenffer and Jeremy Kelshaw left the stage leaving Alister and Heidi alone with an acoustic guitar and their voices.
The crowd leant into this as there were calls for hush at the start of the song; an audience who had been vocal and rowdy to this point were near silent as they took in this special moment. It was clear that many people in attendance had done their homework on 'Bliss Release' with many singing back almost every word of every song for the set.
Also obvious was the band having fun being back onstage. There was a sense of where does time go as such talented musicians seemed at home on the stage after so long away. The band revealed some of the things they've been up to while they've been away throughout the set.
Alister is a teacher as he rather hilariously shouted to the crowd: "My class, my rules." While Heidi has become a mother with children under five years old; she gave a shout-out to fellow parents at the gig.
After playing 'Bliss Release' in full the band went off stage before returning, joking with the crowd there was no need for the loud cheers as they would have come back anyway. They played songs from their other albums 'Dream Cave' and 'Zone' including 'Promise', 'Panopticon' and 'Scar'.
Cloud Control finished the show with an impassioned take of 'Dream Cave', as the crowd sang back "I'm in a dream cave". It was a special reminder of the catharsis and communal experience of live music.
It's great to have Cloud Control back. After this run of shows celebrating where the band started, do they have another album in them? I would like to think so.
