A relatively mellow, mixed crowd was treated to an upbeat and endearingly imperfect set by Australia’s An Horse on Sunday evening at Old Rock House.

“Where we’re from [Brisbane, AUS], when it rains, no one goes outside. Because when it rains, it floods…and people die,” Kate Cooper chuckled darkly as she and bandmate Damon Cox made some adjustments on stage. The polite, albeit somewhat disjointed, crowd laughed comfortably along with Cooper. This was St. Louis, after all, and a downpour or three in an evening does not a ruined concert night make.

I mention that the crowd seemed disjointed because three songs into their set, Cooper had to playfully (no, but seriously) ask fans to bridge the six foot gap between the first row of humans and ORH’s completely lean-on-able high stage.

An Horse has toured with the likes of Tegan and Sara, Manchester Orchestra, and other big name, big venue acts. Continued success across varying commercial markets has all but guaranteed they’ll be found more frequently in larger rooms with greater gaps to bridge between themselves and fans.

But on Sunday, they were just two friends and musical collaborators looking down the barrel of a four month tour. They played a predictable set with a short encore; they played it well. Cox and Cooper were professional and skillful. They fed us their signature brand of biting, acidic lyricism but zoomed it in on a pretend airplane made of infectious drum beats and snappy hooks.

Before launching into one of their hug-punch pop songs, Cooper told a story about she and Cox seeing someone who looked like one of her ex-lovers (who happened to be the inspiration for the upcoming song) while on tour. The moral was, “Remember that even if you’re feeling bad now, you’ll laugh soon.” Therein lies the essence of An Horse.

Notes: 

— We (VERY VERY SADLY) missed openers Middle Class Fashion, who we heard sounded awesome/delightful. This came as no surprise.

— Fortunately, we were able to catch and shoot Peach‘s opening set. Check out the photos here.

— Our entire An Horse set is up on Flickr, too.