The Dardanelles are yet another band riding the seemingly endless ‘new wave’ sound. But, unlike some of the gawd-awful dance-rock bands out there, these guys cut through in their first appearance in Hobart at the Republic Bar.

Firstly, they have visual presence. It was exciting to see them. They weren’t naff or clichéd, they had genuine on-stage charisma (except for the bass player, who just stood there watching the drummer, but hey – he’s a bass player, what do you expect?). Lead singer/keyboardist/drum-machinist Josh looked like he’d been borrowing moves from Something With Numbers’ Jake Grigg, guitarist ‘Rainman’ (ummm…really?) took a while to loosen up but eventually got into the set.

The thing that helped them really stand out was Mitch, the powerhouse of a drummer. It was a fairly visceral performance and it was fantastic to see the whole kit shaking, while he worked up a relentless groove.

But the most important thing is the music itself. Without hearing the whole Mirror Mirror album it was difficult to tell what we were in for, but the songs translated well to the live setting. The melodies were strong and simple, but the simplicity added definition to their overall sound, and stopped the mass of instruments, samples, drum-loops and keyboards from becoming undistinguishable, and props to ‘Rainman’ who created some fantastic guitar-layers that were a bit over-the-top, but strangely not out of place.

Some songs were better than others, Mirror Mirror and Footsteps, for instance, seemed to work well. In all, a strong performance from a band that has created a pretty good basis to make some music that moves beyond the new wave norm.