There are few bands today as universally liked as Khruangbin – speaking anecdotally of course.
Fever for the funky Texan trio, whose name means 'airplane' in Thai, has spread far since they released their first album a decade ago.However, no matter how many times you've heard Khruangbin's easy-listening, Eastern-leaning psychedelic music played in the background of a chill hangout, café or on an office UE Boom, it's worthwhile catching their captivating live shows when they come to town.
Like pied pipers, Khruangbin have lured swelling crowds to increasingly bigger venues in Melbourne over the past six years. They've graduated from two shows at The Croxton Bandroom (capacity 1,000) for their debut tour in 2019, to two nights at Margaret Court Arena this week, a venue that can hold up to 7,500 people.
Swiss-Ecuadorian brothers Hermanos Gutiérrez opened for Khruangbin last night (25 February). They led the audience, in their words, "to the desert," with slow-burning guitar duets inspired by Latin music and the soundtracks to Western films.
This offered a taste of the main act to follow, but didn't compare with the force that is the three members of Khruangbin playing together onstage, layering Laura Lee's bass with Mark Speer's guitar and Donald Johnson's drums.
Khruangbin's misty stage design for this tour, which celebrates their 2024 release 'A La Sala', allowed the band to look more like a mirage than ever before.
A set of white stairs that changed colour under the stage lights cascaded down from three arched windows, in an homage to the album cover. These windows framed a visual display that, alongside the music and dancing, did most of the talking for Khruangbin, who addressed the crowd only twice throughout their entire performance.
They launched into 'A La Sala''s opening track 'Fifteen Fifty-Three' for their starting song. Sporting signature jet-black wigs, Lee and Speers materialised in the arched windows before sauntering up and down the stairs. Meanwhile, Johnson took up a permanent position behind his drum kit in the top corner.
The gentle start to their performance rolled on with 'May Ninth' and 'Ada Jean'. It dipped into its lowest groove with 'Farolim de Felgueiras' before 'Pon Pón' revived the mood, and the energy ebbed and flowed like this across the entire 'A La Sala' portion of their set.
During 'A Love International', Lee and Speers danced towards and away from each other like shy, serenading lovers against a foggy red backdrop. At the end of this song's crescendo (which sounds more like an orgasm than any other instrumental I've ever heard) the pair sat down at the front of the stage to play the sleepy album closer 'Les Petits Gris'.
A simulation of rain, thunder and lightning began to slowly build to mark the end of the 'A La Sala' play-through, at which point Khruangbin left the stage.
They reemerged for part two, performing more up-tempo favourites from their back catalogue, including 'The Number 3', 'Rules', 'Dern Kala', 'Evan Finds The Third Room' and 'Time (You And I)'.
There isn't a whole lot of difference between the music Khruangbin made in their early days versus what they're making now. Khruangbin perform faithful versions of most of their songs, but will take liberties with the tempo and dynamics of others, bringing different elements to the fore in the process.
When Speer's effortless shredding isn't dominating, you hear just how much Lee's bass hooks drive the melodies. Occasionally, they'll both quieten down to allow Johnson's sharp percussion to take over.
No track better represents this than the extended jam of 'Lady And Man' that Khruangbin often plays live. About two and a half minutes in, the song drops into an accelerated disco version before returning suddenly to its original rhythm. There were several moments like this over the course of Khruangbin's Tuesday night set when all three members stopped on a dime, proving just how tight and cohesive their sound is.
I left Margaret Court Arena sorely disappointed by only one thing. Khruangbin skipped an old fixture of their live show: their famous medley of covers. These would cycle through a rotating line-up of '90s hip hop, '70s funk and '80s classics, often paired with a hit or two from the country hosting them that night ('Never Tear Us Apart' by INXS was a well-received, globalised touch in Australian concerts past).
Perhaps it was time for Khruangbin to hang up this tradition – to shift a few things within their self-imposed parameters and stop their shtick from getting tired. Naturally, this change makes way for the band to play more of their own hits, which, if we take anything away from this tour, those are banking up nicely.
