You know what’s great? Going into a gig with absolutely no idea as to what you should expect, because you don’t know any of the bands.

First support of the night was Shaun Hellyer. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch around five minutes of him playing, but from what I heard (and remember), it wasn’t too bad. Next up was Spazmoo. They played what sounded like a combination of thrash, funk and rock and it came off really well. For only two people (one on bass and vocals, the other on drums), they were able to produce a really strong sound.

The final support of the night was Paper Champion. Whilst they had a nice live presence, a couple of the songs they played didn’t really sit well with me. It was good to see the band moving around a lot on stage, but they could’ve used a little restraint. Still, seeing them going manic on stage (especially the bass player) was pretty good.

Now, before seeing The Red Paintings perform, I didn’t really know what they sounded like. So, as I mentioned at the start, I didn’t know what to expect. At the very start, they had this ambient track playing. Two people onstage were dressed up as the mermaids from the artwork for the We Belong in the Sea single. They held up a couple of long strips of fabric (which represented the sea) attached to two poles and slowly moved them back and forth, before the actual band got on stage. It was interesting and confusing at the same time, but rather nice to see. Most bands just come on stage and start playing straight away.

So after a few minutes of the ambience, the band comes on and plays a slow, piano driven track. Then the fabric strips are taken down and the music has kicked into (mostly) a high gear with a great cover of Mercy Seat. They put a lot of effort into appearance. Four of the members were dressed in oriental outfits (with matching make-up) and Trash McSweeney was dressed as the king of the sea.

There were also people painting on stage – two working on canvas and two body-painting the mermaids. This added an interesting element to the show, but the band put far more effort into their songs. To be honest, they played really well. Although there were some minor technical difficulties at the start, the set that they played was amazingly good. There was so much energy within the playing and every member was perfectly in time with each other. The songs choices were a perfect mix of fast and slow, and none of it felt like it dragged on. It was also great to see Trash speaking to the crowd, showing genuine interest in the fans.

At the very end, they got a bunch of people on stage (including two guys doing a really strange, yet awesome, dance) as they played their last song for the night. Overall, they were absolutely brilliant to see perform, and I am glad I went.