Cut Copy at the Danforth Music Hall

Photos by Katrina Lat.

I’m a relative newcomer to the temple that is Australia’s Cut Copy.  I was on the fence for their first couple of albums, and then veered into “on” territory by 2011’s Zonoscope.

By the time I heard their fourth album, 2013’s Free Your Mind, it was too late to get tickets for their last visit to the Danforth Music Hall.  It broke my heart because that album is one of my favourite albums of this decade and still gets plays weekly.

Fast forward to this year and the band returned last night to an almost full Music Hall with their fifth album, Haiku From Zero in tow.  The album isn’t the immediate rush of euphoria that was its predecessor but it is growing on me.

I did manage to catch Cut Copy on their Free Your Mind tour at the Osheaga Festival in Montreal.  It was the most blissful set of the weekend, but just a short festival set, so I had high hoped for my first true Cut Copy gig.

They definitely did not disappoint, igniting a dance party right from the get-go with “Need You Now”.  For the next 80 minutes or so the Aussies turned a damp chilly Tuesday evening into a sweaty communion.

Led by Dan Whitford, an energetic frontman that just exuded good times and the whole packed floor heaved in groovy approval.  They touched on all five albums in their discography with the latest getting the most attention and fitting in nicely with what seemed to be an endless supply of hits that the crowd sang along with.

Highlights were the energy burst that was “Free Your Mind”, “Out There on the Ice”, “Meet Me In A House of Love” and “Hearts on Fire”.  If I had to register a complaint about the evening is that the set wasn’t long enough and definitely not enough Free Your Mind tracks, but I definitely got the outlet I so desperately needed to kick out some mid-week stress.