Powderfinger

This was a night for the Australian population of Vancouver, who turned out in droves to support the long-suffering Aussie band Powderfinger. With a ten-year spanning career, Powderfinger has succeeded in developing a strong grassroots following in their own home country, and their last album, Odyssey Number Five, received a considerable number of prestigious Australian music awards, while managing a moderate amount of airtime on Canadian radio waves. The recent tour was in support of their new release, Vulture Street, and singer Bernard Fanning introduced "Sunsets" with a caustic reference to their lack of North American exposure, expecting the song to be a "medium sized hit in Canada." From the get-go, the band wasted no time in unleashing a string of well-loved Odyssey hits, including rolling rock number "Waiting For the Sun," which is heavy on melodic guitars and haunting vocals, and "Whatever Makes You Happy," which featured Fanning's solo whisperings while he tickled the keyboard like a manly version of Chris Martin. While the band proved their high energy worth on occasion, this is rock with a softer edge, and when a fight broke out at the front of the blissful crowd, it was nothing short of ironic. "There are two fuckheads fighting up here. There's gonna be no more of that," said Fanning, as annoyed as a frustrated parent. One could only wonder what there was to fight about.