Last Dinosaurs brings explosive set to the Sinclair with disco-pop infused indie rock

by Harumi Jang
2019-11-29

Last Dinosaurs brings explosive set to the Sinclair with disco-pop infused indie rock

Last Dinosaurs

November 19, 2019 at The Sinclair

Last Dinosaurs is an Austrialian indie rock band known for their synth-like guitar riffs and indie-pop influenced sound. The band first began touring in the US this past year with shows in LA, NYC, and Chicago to promote their third album, Yumeno Garden, released in 2018. Their recent show at The Sinclair featured fellow artists Ginger Root and Born Ruffians as the openers. Yumeno Garden was written and recorded in Arita, Japan with the band’s main songwriters, Sean (frontman/rhythm guitarist) and Lachlan Caskey (lead guitarist), who are of Japanese heritage. The band sought to escape to somewhere quiet and tranquil to properly capture isolation, creating a new sound for the band.

The show started with “Wurl”, a track from their 2015 album, Wellness, which put the packed room into an immediate groove. After quickly transitioning into “Bass God” and “Sense”, both from their new album, lead singer Sean told the crowd: “We got a ton of songs to play but not enough time so we’re going to smash through them.” The first half of the show was very high energy with the crowd freely dancing around and headbanging to their more rock heavy songs like “Sunday Night” and “Stream.”

Last Dinosaurs brings explosive set to the Sinclair with disco-pop infused indie rock

Captured by Harumi Jang

The band slowed it down in the middle, guiding the energy of the room into more of a head-swaying vibe with their slower, disco-pop infused rhythms like “Italo Disco” and “Shallow Boy”, which have more of a sad, honest message than their other upbeat songs. “Italo Disco” is about Lachlan’s time in Italy where he and his long term girlfriend mutually decided it was time to end things.

The second single off of Yumeno Garden, ”Eleven” was their closing song, perfectly encompassing the mix of their newly refined sound with their roots of driving, up-tempo guitar riffs and Lachlan’s dynamic vocals. This song was the most exciting in their performance, with the middle of the floor moshing, and eventually catching Sean who dove in for a brief crowd-surf.

With the crowd screaming for an encore after the four-piece band left the stage, they came back on stage with Sean saying, “You guys 100% deserve another song.” The crowd cheered as the band started playing the old favorite “Honolulu” off of their 2012 debut album, In a Million Years. At the end the song, he admitted, “This is the longest set we’ve played, oops. We’ve gone overtime,” before diving into the actual last track of the night: their most popular song, “Apollo.”

Last Dinosaurs performed an explosive set that maintained high energy even during their more laid-back songs, with the crowd dancing and swaying throughout the entire show. It was clear there were many big fans in the crowd who were basking in the treat of being able to see the non-US-based band. Last Dinosaurs more than pleased the vibrant audience by going overtime and playing 19 songs, engaging with the fans and delivering a lasting enough performance that the Sinclair’s employees were antsy about them leaving the venue.