A Night Alive With Phony Ppl
Photographs by Ishani Buff
When was the last time you danced your heart out? It was Tuesday 17th October, streets were pretty quiet for a night in Melbourne but an underground, upbeat and never-ending pulsing dance floor at 170 Russell for stylistically adventurous R&B and Hip-Hop band, Phony Ppl.
As soon as you walked down the stairs of this dark-lit room, you were bound to be stunned by how vibrant the band and the audience were in the way they were all singing and dancing to and fro. You had the incredible Elbee Thrie smashing out some crazy vocals alongside Bari Bass - on bass guitar, Aja Grant - on keyboard, Elijah Rawk - on lead guitar and Matt Byas on drums.
With lights bouncing off the ceilings and a smoke machine flowing into the distance, Phony Ppl made sure to keep the audience on their toes, song after song. Responsive, relatable music with a relish of love created a tight-knit bond between the audience and the band. Talks about the inspiration of Pokemon lovers and the deals of heartbreak and love were among some of the favourite topics of the night.
Within various elements of the songs written by Phony Ppl, you would have certain members of the band smash out into an explosive burst of a guitar riff or hit an extra snare or two on the kit. I had never seen such a band in the genre of R&B pull out such an exhilarating performance with live accompaniments.
It had come around to the time of the night when Elijah Rawk believed that a special soul in the audience would sing alongside Elbee Thrie for one magical song. A girl with long brown hair bolted her hands up in the air and was pulled to the front pit of the stage to jam alongside Elbee and if you could see all the shocked faces around the room, I kid you not this girl gave a jaw-dropping performance.
She knew every lyric like she could sing it in her sleep. I admired her confidence, expressions and her music capability to pull this off. We all fell in love with her at that very moment and little did we know it was her only special day. Her birthday.
Hugs were exchanged, the audience continued to dance and dazzle the night away and an endless round of applause filled the room for the impeccable performance by Phony Ppl.
A show to put in the memory book.