REVIEW: Client Liaison w/ Luke Million @ The Tivoli – 21/04/17

There are a lot of bands that have a “schtick”. There are bands that love a costume, there are bands that take the piss out of other bands, and there are bands that tribute other artists or time periods. And then there is Client Liaison.

Client Liaison have cornered Australian 1990’s corporate culture and run with it as a theme of their entire existence. However, it’s not just the costumes, or the sounds on-stage that revisit a period that some may argue fashion forgot. It’s a whole immersive experience, and it’s one that other bands could learn from in their own productions.

Before our aforementioned heroes took the stage, the night was kickstarted by the “Ambassador of Future Funk”, Luke Million, whose blend of 80s electro-synthesiser and keytar steeze had crowds moving and grooving. Bouncing between tracks like Light & Sound, Fear The Night, and his latest single, Back to the Rhythm, Million’s embrace of cheesy and larger than life sounds felt like a perfect entree to the main course that was to come. By the time of the final track, his piece de resistance, Arnold, had its first bass notes ringing out, the crowd was in the palm of Million’s hand, dipping and rising like the slopes on Mount Buller.

Opening with Canberra Won’t Be Calling Tonight, the band wowed audiences with slick visuals, tight harmonies and choreography that no one had seen since June Jones was hosting Aerobics Oz-Style.

A short break, and a few 90s tunes later (#OrinocoFlow), and The Tivoli’s curtain raised to reveal a set design straight out of an early nineties work-safe ad. Sitting atop a work desk was a touch-tone Telstra phone, some period appropriate lamps and a cathode ray tube computer that would have struggled to run Windows 97.

Behind the office infrastructure, on the projected screen came a flurry of images that foretold what you were in for over the coming hours. Stamped passports, green screen dance moves, and several akubras were just the tip of the iceberg. The ‘Diplomatic Immunity’ Tour had touched down in Brisbane.

Opening with Canberra Won’t Be Calling Tonight, the band wowed audiences with slick visuals, tight harmonies and choreography that no one had seen since June Jones was hosting Aerobics Oz-Style. On-screen, John Howard, Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Diner’s Club, AMEX, and Laurie Oakes were fighting it out, while Monte, Tom, and Geordie strutted around the stage, flaunting their custom-made Australiana suits and Harvey mixed and mashed his way across the reception desk.

There were dance moves that felt like they came from a time when Ansett still reigned in the skies and Mark Latham was 10% less of a joke. Three part weaves, spins and quick foot work that come straight from the playbooks of Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson and New Kids on the Block all composed with the light hearted playfulness and 90s cheese of one of music’s most thought-out productions.

It was this thorough immersion that meant the band had the audience eating out of their palm.

When it comes to a band that thinks of everything, Client Liaison takes the cake. The band has bought and utilised an off-white limousine as a reflection of their single of the same name. The entry stamps to the venue marked punters’ arms with a bureaucratic “DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY GRANTED”. Even the bar staff were dressed on theme, with one very QANTAS-esque bartender taking orders in outstanding style. The venue’s house music reflected the time that the band wanted to send you back to, the on-stage and on-screen visuals were oozing with 90s nostalgia that could have seen Christine Anu or Tina Arena come onstage with barely a batted eyelid.

Mid set, the band left the stage and headed to the “cool room”, a pre-recorded clip of the band in a pub fridge securing a slab of the much-maligned and rarely served Fosters. When they returned to the stage with the slab, handing out cans to front-row fans, the immersion hit a new level. Not only that, but two members of the audience found themselves riding shotgun in the band’s limousine to the after-party thanks to some brilliant crowd interaction from the four-piece on stage.

It was this thorough immersion that meant the band had the audience eating out of their palm. While laying down their biggest hits, and some of their more obscure material from their debut album and two EPs, the band brought out a Brisbane-born crowd favourite in the form of Savage Garden’s 1997 hit I Want You. So by the time that the band came to wrap the show with their huge hit World of Our Love, whether you were there as a long time fan, or it was just a way to turn your night into day, you were a bonafide client.

Check out our insane gallery of the events HERE, and check below to see future tour dates and the music video for Off-White Limousine.

Diplomatic Immunity Tour

THU 27 APR
The Wool Exchange, Geelong
THU 28 APR
The Wool Exchange, Geelong
SAT 29 APR
The Gov, Adelaide

Get Tickets HERE