Breakfast Road, Aria Wood, Aziz - Live and lively at the Workers Club Fitzroy
On Thursday night, Eora/Sydney band Breakfast Road played their first show in Naarm/Melbourne to thunderous applause. With inspired support acts in azzizz and Aria Wood, the night was a blessing of alt-pop success.
After a sold out Eora headliner at the Chippo Hotel earlier this month, Breakfast Road headed South for the second stop of their two-stop “world” tour - The Workers Club in Fitzroy. Delivering a lively, hilarious, fun and groovy set of originals, along with a cover, snippet and skit or two making for a great night of Aussie pop music.
Starting with a bang was alt-pop and hip-hop crooner azzizz. Sounding like a Steve Lacy, Mk.gee and Frank Ocean love child azzizz brought a profound level of charisma and humour to his live set.
Making an effort to disarm the crowd, azzizz joked “Just pretend we’re at Camp Flog Gnaw, what the fuck is up Camp Flog Gnaw!” earning big cheers and chuckles from all. As well, azzizz offered anyone to come on stage during the set, leading to the resident sound tech hopping on the drums for several tracks - a truly bizarre and spontaneous event that I’ve never seen before.
Key tracks it all falls down, Adventure Time and Halfway Moon mixed laid back chorus-dripping guitars with swooning, clean vocals and spacious reverb to build a nostalgic, warm embrace.
Keep an eye on azzizz, one day he might just make it to Flog Gnaw.
Next up was the brilliant Aria Wood.
Reminiscent of outsider-pop legends of today such as Caroline Polachek, Charli XCX and PinkPantheress, Aria more than sold me on her capacity to create pop classics with an alternative spin.
With just a fan and a launchpad Aria gave The Workers an arena level pop performance - stunningly choregraphed, glowing and totally commited to the bit as a small town icon.
Tracks mixing club rhythms and deep textures including Nail Art and Caroline left listeners with no choice but to dance, while anthem Practicing made for the highlight of the set. With repeating backing vocal “keep practicing, keep keep practicing” the song acts as an ode to commitment, strength and absolute discipline - clearly translated into her performance and songcraft.
Aria Wood will rule the world.
When our headliners Breakfast Road finally took to the stage, the audience was treated to a greeting from none other than Master Chief himself - welcoming us to the Breakfast Road World Tour.
Opening with their new indie-pop single GLOBAL WARMING started the show with a bang. Exchanging vocals between co-lead singers, the boys layer sweet harmonies over fun 90s RnB influenced hip-hop party starters.
True NSYNC-esque sing-along hit START A RIOT dominated, with catchy as hell hooks and a genuine earworm of a synth bass line - so much so that it made for a perfect crowd participation moment during the song’s bridge.
Many a gag occurred with a stacked soundboard full of bruh moments and more, and even a tease for a Black Eyed Peas classic led to roars of laughter and confusion.
A rocking cover of Nelly Furtado’s Maneater made for more than we’d bargained for, while original Takeoff brought a house vibe and intimacy.
With friends and collaborators FRIDAY* and Zion Garcia jumping on stage for a guest verse or two in tracks Lost and Found and Don’t Wait respectively, the roof was well and truly raised by the end of the night.
Bidding adieu with an encore and one more speech from Master Chief, the show closed out to smiles all round. For fans of Brockhampton, Aminé and the like, Breakfast Road is hell of a good time.
Check out their latest single here.
All photos taken by Cleo Tuke @patracore