Photo

Photo Album

Video

The Cat Empire has already stretched across Australia, taking over that hotbed of house-rockin’ bands one enormous theatre at a time. And now that their chart-topping smash Two Shoes has gone double-platinum in Australia they’ve set their sites on other territories, conquering late night TV in the USA – with performances on Letterman, Leno, Craig Ferguson– and packing out theatres right across Europe, as well as headlining major festivals in every corner of the world.

But is the world ready for six guys who apparently never sleep, who play nearly every night of the week, often drawing up to 30 performers onto the stage to feed from their limitless energy? Can we fully appreciate a group whose sound is a joyful collision of reggae, pub-rock, hip-hop, acid jazz, ska, R&B, and whatever else is in the air that evening, all of it packed into tight songs that threaten at any moment to explode into dazzling jams?

Well, actually … yes, if we judge by the reactions they have been getting all over the world recent trips. Brian Mansfield of USA Today reported on their Bonnaroo performance that the “Aussie visitors performed with the pacing of an old-school R&B revue.” And Jeff Tamarkin, writing for AMG, confirmed that “the fuss was justified: The Cat Empire is a wholly engaging, genre-splicing band … clever and brainy, danceable and absorbing.”

How do they pull it off? From the first moments on stage the groove is ferocious, the brass is sassy. The trumpet and keyboard feel like they