“It feels great to play the Enmore again,” admits Bernard Fanning. “We haven’t been here for over eight years!” Understandably, Powderfinger have become quite the arena juggernaut of late, as demonstrated by their colossal ‘Across the Great Divide’ tour with fellow heavyweights Silverchair at the end of last year. Those shows unfairly set up a competition between the two Aussie rock staples, and for a moment it seemed that Fanning and his Brisbane boys could not match the explosive eccentricity of Daniel Johns. Well, after last night, consider me re-converted to the Church of the Finger. Permanently.

The big hype surrounding this tour emerged due to two factors: firstly, that there would be an acoustic/electric separation in sets, and that the fans would decide which tracks the band played on the night. To a cynic such as myself, this kind of activity typically screams ‘Wanker!’, as the accused rock band attempt to prove that they’re not over the hill and indeed still in touch with their massive fan base. In reality, Powderfinger chose to do things differently because they’ve been doing it the same for over ten years, and it was time to let loose. It certainly showed in Bernard’s demeanour, cracking jokes about Cogsy’s B.O, the Origin score and the ‘desperadoes’ who bought tickets to both sell-out gigs.

And besides, the ‘acoustic’ set wasn’t exactly unplugged. Cogsy substituted brushes for sticks and the guitarists got their campfire acoustics on, but it was anything but boring. As the band reinterpreted (yes, reinterpreted – there was not one track which remained faithful to the recordings, and that’s awesome) their back catalogue with blues, country and jazz flourishes, you could literally feel how relaxed they were on stage. Their decision to make their studio keyboardist a permanent sixth member of the band wasn’t a bad move either – he injected soul and energy every time he hit a note.

Staying true to their word, the ‘Finger played the songs that had garnered the highest votes, which included two B-sides, Best-Of track Bless My Soul and a number of cuts from their earlier, ‘forgotten’ albums. Darren also got a chance to sing, proving that there is more than one stellar voice in this band. And when the big ‘fuck-off’ amps came out after interval, it was time for Bernard to truly shine. He has honed his pipes in recent years and learnt to play around with the rhythm and intonation of almost every melody he’s put on disc. The result is a dynamic performance that never ever got boring. And with two tremendous guitar soloists behind him (Middleton looking so Jonny Greenwood it was scary) and an air-tight rhythm section, there was no way this show could be anything short of amazing.

We need to stop worshipping shitty indie bands and revering the real trailblazers in the industry. Powderfinger may be hitting their forties, but my God, do they know how to put on a show.