Despite tickets, posters, various websites and other paraphernalia stating that the show began at 7:00pm, fans were made to wait for over an hour outside the ANU refectory as the Canberran night rapidly dipped towards near freezing temperatures. Before arriving, I had wondered why The Donnas, who have been big on the music scene since the late 1990’s, were second billed to the comparatively newer boys from Kisschasy. However, standing in the line that had snaked its way back around to where the building meets the bridge, I noticed what was to be the make-up of the audience: a good 70 to 80% of young looking under 25 year olds, compared to the minority of Donnas faithful, whose older appearance made them somewhat more obvious.

Starting the nights proceedings were Melbourne’s The Getaway Plan, who got the crowd from 0 to 60 in 1.5 songs, belting out a tight set that set the standard for the evening. The first few rows of the audience loved every minute of the impressive performance as they jumped and danced to each song.

The band declared their love for the Canberran audience and announced their impending return to the city later in the year, and by the time they closed with possibly their most well known track, Where the City Meets the Sea, the room was very well energised.

However, the moment The Getaway Plan finished, the older contingent of the audience filtered their way through the crowd toward the barrier, as the younger fragment left for the amenities.

When vocalist Brett Anderson joined her fellow Donnas, who had already commenced playing, on stage, I overheard a young couple, apparently oblivious to The Donna’s history and back catalogue, mention to each other, “oh yeah, they are all chicks.”

Such was the feeling in the room; that no matter how hard the ladies rocked, the crowd still seemed to be holding back. At the end of each track, Anderson did her best to encourage some enthusiasm from the punters before getting back into her songs, the whole time prancing and posing in a fashion that invoked Mick Jagger-esque stylings.
Her howling and hair whipping were not only matched, but outdone by thrashing guitarist Allison Robertson, who resembled a Kirk Hammett Barbie doll. Robertson’s fingers danced at the bottom of the fret board while her hair was in perpetual windmill mode as she delivered classic guitar licks rarely heard outside of the 70’s. The girls took time out to mention that this was the middle show, that they had played the first half of dates and they had half still to come. Anderson claimed that the Californian girls had warmed up enough and that we were in for the best show of the tour, before they got too complacent on the downhill run home. They didn’t disappoint.

At no point did The Donnas lose their energy or perkiness while they professionally powered through the set which included tracks primarily from their 2007 album, Bitchin and 2002’s Spend the Night, culminating with Anderson clambering onto the barrier and thrusting the mic into the throng as they shouted the words to the final song, Take it Off.

Again, when The Donnas concluded their set, the audience reversed, with the older fans reverting to the back and the younger ones jostling for positions up front for the next band.

Kisschasy were blinding from the first song – literally. Not only was the sound electrifying, but the LED lightshow behind the Melbourne four-piece tortured irises as the room went from all but pitch black, to intense beams of coloured light. While vision slowly returned, guitarist Sean Thomas wailed on his instrument of choice then proceeded to climb on the barricade and get up close with a CCTV camera affixed to the roof, shoving his guitar at the camera as if it was proving distorted feedback. And if the security guards watching on their monitors weren’t getting into the show, the mob in front of the stage more than made up for it. For the first few songs, Kisschasy could do no wrong.

Then they decided to take the tone down a notch.

In response, the older members of the audience made their way to either the bar, or worse – the exit. Then when the band walked off stage leaving singer/guitarist Darren Cordeux alone with his acoustic guitar, much of the crowd walked off too.

The slower songs did drive out a lot of people, but those who stayed were definitely fans of Kisschasy, and they were loving life.
When the band returned, they continued to churn out their FM radio friendly songs creating a sonic mundanity. And despite the remaining fans singing along to every word, and jumping and dancing with joy to each and every track, the blinding light show (which was beginning to become the highlight) continued to thwart visual focus and clarity, until Cordeux asked for the house lights to be turned up. With a flood of light over the crowd, bassist Joel Vanderuit proclaimed the Canberra audience to be much better looking than those from Melbourne. Cordeux stated that he was going to say the exact same thing, and obviously the statements were met with rapturous approval. The two then joked that the band should move to Canberra because of all the good looking people.

Kisschasy then closed out the show with uninspiring performances of two more of their singles before leaving the stage, but returned for the customary encore.

As the refectory lights came on and we all piled back out into the freezing night air, I looked around at all the young satisfied, smiling faces and realised that Kisschasy were indeed the most popular band tonight, and as such probably deserved top billing over The Donnas – and just how big a crying shame it was.