Perhaps due to design, the bandroom at the Prince of Wales hotel always looks packed. While it was a Tuesday night, the bandroom managed to look even busier then usual thanks to London based indie-electronica five piece New Young Pony Club. While glittery silver banners hung behind the stage spelling out the initials of the band’s name, the super excited crowd dance away to the pre-show DJs set made up of similar artists – Hot Chip, Cut Copy and Santogold. When the music stops and the lights are turned off, screams fill up the empty silence of the room bringing the band onto stage.

Lead singer Tahita Bulmer’s performances always rely on her feeding off the audience and this one was no exception. Dressed in a black shirt/dress combination with tightly curled blonde hair, Tahita was constantly on the move around the Prince’s small stage while the crowd helped her out with the chorus of Get Lucky. She was talkative as usual but clearly was suffering from post-Splendour fatigue, claiming that the band didn’t know what day it was and rubbing her head and eyes after songs. “Melbourne is the most exciting audience, it’s not bullshit, I’m not just saying that”, Tahita claimed before ripping into Grey.

From that point on it the theme of the night was made pretty clear – let’s get drunk and have a good time. After each song guitarist Andy Spence would go for his glass of red wine, occasionally toasting the crowd. Tahita took another approach, asking a staff member to go backstage and grab a salt shaker, some lime and an oversized bottle of tequila, taking some time to have a shot before offering a few crowd members their own (and for one lucky crowd member, a chance to have Tahita lick their hand).

While it was party time for both the crowd and the band, New Young Pony Club still had a job to do and that is a job they do well. While keyboard player Lou Hayter may look somewhat uninterested at times, standing perfectly still while playing her instrument and occasionally adding back-up vocals, she doesn’t miss a note allowing for songs such as Jerk Me and F.A.N. to sound even better live then off their album. Meanwhile at the back of the stage, Sarah Jones wass smashing her drum set so hard that she could shatter concrete, let alone glass.

By the time New Young Pony Club give the crowd what they want and play popular single Ice Cream, both Tahita and the crowd are bouncing up and down in unison. While a couple of crowd members manage to jump on stage and get in a quick hug during final track The Bomb, the crowd are hot for more, yelling out for an encore. After no more then fourty-five seconds off stage, the band return to close their set with an extended version of The Get Go, with Tahita instructing the crowd to help out with the “ahh ahhh ah-ah-ah ahh ahh ahh ahh’s”. With that completed, New Young Pony Club said their goodnights (even Lou thanked the crowd for coming out), the house lights were switched on and the crowd filed down the staircase and into the streets of St. Kilda.

The main act of the evening may have only been on for four fourty five minutes, but during that time the Prince Bandroom was party central. Would New Young Pony Club’s performance been as good if the audience were not as into it as they were? Probably not. Just as adding a roll of Mentos to a bottle of Diet Coke causes just the right chemical reaction to allow for an explosion, adding an excited crowd to a New Young Pony Club performance allows for just the right chemical reaction – in this case a fun night had by all.