Fire Fire – Red Light / White Gown : Single Reviews

Fire Fire! are one of those local bands I’ve been lucky enough to have watched rise and rise in the Melbourne scene. With each passing year that brings fly-by-night fancies and flavours of the weak, bands like Fire Fire! have been gigging relentlessly, honing and paying dues.

Red Light is the band’s first official single (live favourites Whats It Matter and Isolation having been only available for download from Triple J Unearthed) and includes on it the soon-to-hit-an-indie-rock-dancefloor-near-you b-side, White Gown.

The synths are a relatively new addition to the FF sound, so they don’t sound as at home here as in the arms of, say, your Midnight Juggernauts, but the instrumental evolution is admirable; I always enjoy seeing bands experiment with new ways of shaping their sound, and the synth in Fire Fire! sounds fit to become a mainstay.

Red Light has a knife-sharp guitar that rings out; you will find yourself humming (or, at least, making that “deew-deew-deew” guitar imitation sound) for hours after. Red Light allows Fire Fire! to sound like a more expressive Interpol; like Interpol after having had some more sleep and a jog. “The middle of an intersection/ The perfect place for parting ways” singer Marc Tito drawls, clearly unending in his vigour.

Although Red Light is the official single, I enjoy White Gown much more; that ethereal opening, like drifting into space, the sudden rupture of ringing guitar and jaunty drumbeats. Tito’s snarling vox explode forth, livid but eerily calm: “You change the locks, you bring your dead out/ You burn the bridge, you burn it all down/ You wear the white, white, white gown…”

The vocal inflections meld succinctly with a hard-hitting drumbeat, giving the whole song a nice, shoulder-swaggering beat, perfect for dancefloor stud and armchair dancer alike. It’s dark but excitable; I found myself singing along, but turning it up nice and loud so my own frightfully amateur vocals wouldn’t disturb the song.