Walking into the Oxford Art Factory I expected to see a bunch of 20 year olds in their denim underwear and/or bucket hats, teetering on the edge of being too drunk waiting to see Grammy nominated band, The Internet but instead I was pleasantly surprised. The majority of the crowd was in their late 20s and other than that I could not tell you more specifics about the demographics because they were just all over the place, young and old, gay and straight etc.

The band opened with Get Away and, other than the sound being kinda shotty, the band was on point. Syd Tha Kid aka Sydney Bennett’s vocals soared above the heavy jazz riffs. Usually what makes the tracks on Ego Death so epic is how understated her voice is allowing it to blend in and out of the melodies in a dream like way but this night they were the main focus which allowed her the chance to really show off how talented she is.

The crowd would go nuts after every song, it would be like Belieber level of applause but it seemed to take a lot of effort to get the crow to interact during the songs, to the point that Syd said “You’re not turnt enough, turn up some more!” right before the band started the second song.

I have to give mad props to bass player Patrick Page, I felt like he was channeling Thundercat up there and his solos throughout the entire show were definitely some of the highlights of the night.

What stood out most to me in the performance was just how the juxtaposition of Sydney’s appearance and vocals was this awesome, audio/visual mashup experience because on first glance Syd is pretty androgynous, if you had never heard The Internet before you wouldn’t know what kind of voice to expect, and then she sings. She has this sweet, groovy ridiculously smooth voice and so much control and skill, the two normally don’t go together but if any one makes it work, it’s Sydney.

Throughout the set the band are constantly trying to hype the crowd up to some success (a little more and more the further the night progressed) but that didn’t take away from their musicianship which is so much more evident live. All the band members were such incredible musicians.

Before the band broke out into their track Just Sayin, Syd proceeded to tell the crowd she needed their help and taught them the hook which, to everyone’s delight, was "You fucked up". Finally, the crowd was really getting into it. This was definitely the stand-out track of the night.

After they finished the song you could see the heat in OAF was affecting Syd and the crowd started yelling "Take it off!" and I think that was the first time I had ever seen a bunch of girls yelling for another girl to take it off. It was definitely very cool. What was also cool was watching the entire band dab in unison mid song (for those of you who don’t know what dabbing is see this video.

I remember thinking during the entire show that I hadn’t seen so many people who looked like they wouldn’t be into jazz-infused soul grooving so much, it gave me a sense of hope for our youth and the future of music.

Towards the end of the set they whipped out fan favourite Girl but for some reason the crowd seemed unfocused and because of the sound you could hear everyone in the room talking over the track. This was a little disappointing but by the time they played Special Affair, the crowd were right back in it with them. You could cut the sexual tension in this track (and the room) with a knife (probably didn’t help that it was so hot and sweaty) and at the end of the song the whole crowd shouted the chorus out in unison. You couldn’t help but stank face all through this track because the band was just so good.

As they ended the show they thanked the crowd for being so amazing during their first show in Sydney ever. They were so humble and grateful, they seemed like they were almost too cool for their own good.

Photos by Jemma Sutton