Indie rockers NOTHING BUT THIEVES have established themselves as one of the most important young bands to emerge from the UK. Their debut self-titled album was hugely popular world-wide, but with the release of their latest offering, Broken Machine, they have seen even more attention. Not just overseas, but here in Australia, and tonight at a sold-out The Factory Theatre in Sydney, Nothing But Thieves will conclude their headline tour of the East Coast. 

‘What do we do when the lights go down’? We scream, as for the band have graced the stage and open tonight’s set list with the power anthem I’m Not Made By Design, The Factory Theatre gets rocking straight away and will stay that way. We are only a few songs in and lead singer Conor Mason asks to get the house lights on, turns to us the audience and ask if we are here for a good time because they aren’t here to fuck spiders that’s for sure, and they for certainly did not. As they hit us with a killer set that featured just as many songs off their self-titled album as their latest Broken Machine, the opening songs alone were some of the best songs from both albums, Live Like Animals, Trip Switch and Wake UP Call.   

There is a lot of love in the room tonight which the band truly do feed off. Conor Mason’s voice is just so fantastic and to hear it live just gives your audio sensors a real delicacy to feast upon. Conor himself admits it takes a lot of work to have his voice sound as amazing as it does, so in what he describes as a diva moment, he leaves us to pop backstage and have a cup of tea. This gives the band a chance to wow us some more as they showcase what they can do and just keep the momentum of the show going and the crowd dancing, they absolutely sounded spectacular not just in that moment but all night.

The band finishes tonight’s epic set list as strongly as it begins smashing us with the hits If I Get High and Broken Machine, Ban All Music and Sorry plus a cover of the late Tom Petty’s Free Falling just to show us how great a live band they truly are. After such a long set filled with so many great songs I wasn’t sure they would be coming back out but the room demanded more. As they cheered and whistled, the stage lights would once again dim and the band would emerge and not leave us without playing their biggest hit to date Amsterdam. Wow, what a show stopper it was! I’ve seen a lot of bands this year but the standing ovation Nothing But Thieves received for their performance tonight was deafening.

Nothing but Thieves are this generations Radiohead it seems, and there is just no way you will ever see a better live show in a room this size ever again. This was the show to tell your kids about, such a powerhouse performance from a band that has taken Australia and the world by storm. Look forward to seeing them again.

Review – Chad

Photo – Christian Ross