AIH...

are Architecture In Helsinki, a Melbourne band that has been around for a few years.

I saw them with friends a few weeks ago at the Metro Theatre. Geez, I hadn't felt so old at a gig since seeing Muse in January. I swear there was a 10 year old girl in the all-ages crowd, and hordes of teens dressed 80s style.

AIH were heaps fun, bouncing around the stage, swapping instruments at every song change. That's the sort of band I would love to be in!! The girl singer is really cool. She reminds me of one of those 60s backing singers with her girly voice.

We had a really good spot in the venue, behind the dance floor on the 3rd tier with an uninterrupted view of the stage. This may have not been the case, when the 2 women in front of us got up off their bums to stand up when the band appeared. One woman was a giant, and she turned to me to say "sorry". We were all cracking up. Thank god she moved a bit so I could actually see.

For one of their last songs, they had recruited half a dozen audience members to enter from the wings of the stage and dance around the band. The lead kid was waving a mop, sweeping the floor and twirling it in the air as he led the kids dancing behind him. It was very funny! And funnier when kids up the front started to crawl up onto the stage so they could also dance! Beefy security guards started to remove these kids off the stage, and the female singer began pushing kids back into the crowd!

Some members of our group preferred the band's old stuff, which is fair enough, but I thought their new stuff was really cool and percussive.