The Empressions were up first, on early, playing to a limited crowd, it seemed like most of them were milling about in the outside area of The Bakery.

Next up were DJ Sorted & MC Papo. Papo looked pretty slick all decked out in white but unfortunately his vocals failed to impress mostly due to the dodgy microphone he had. He looked kind of embarrassed and was only focused on one section of the crowd, his mates seemingly, which wasn’t helped by the fact that him and Sorted were set up in a corner off the stage. Most entertaining at this point were the few characters in the crowd that braved the empty dance floor. Apparently if you take a Blues Brothers look-a-like, some Rastafarians, a couple of hippies and a lady dressed almost like a praying mantis and put them all on a dance-floor at once it’s fairly compelling viewing, even if the sound is bad.

DJs Chad Big Ear and Paul Gamblin successfully enticed the rest of the crowd toward the stage to warm up their dancing shoes with their well-selected set.

Everyone was well ready for Sunshine Brothers to get on with it when they ambled on stage, with drummer Sloanie drunkenly mumbling a welcome to the crowd. No matter though, they were all on their game and kicked off straight away with the instrumental My off their new album Greenpoint. The dub track showcased the laid-back nature of the band with Jo19 on melodica matching up with Jimmy Murphy on trumpet. Murphy played throughout the set with ease, providing smooth tones and plenty of impressive flutter-tonguing. Jo19’s melodica complemented Murphy’s trumpet and provided a unique sound to many tracks. Vocals were traded between Jo19 and bassist Cheeky which undoubtedly leads to comparisons – ironically Jo19 seemed to provide most of the cheek and it was Cheeky who added more dulcet tones with his husky contribution.

The Sunshine Brothers alternated between mesmeric instrumental tracks that were perfect lazy Sunday evening fare (apparently also perfect for some stonerage, judging by that familiar whiff) and more upbeat Reggae tunes better attuned to dancing. The Bakery setting provided a perfect visual accompaniment to the band including fish from Melbourne Aquarium beamed onto the wall to the left of stage, colourful light-bulbs flashing on the ceiling and green fairy lights and balloons on stage. Not that distractions from this engaging band were necessary.

Midway in saw Marty Pervan from the Funk Club House Band join the band on stage to provide his welcome talents on flute, trombone and trumpet. Another surprising guest was Mr Blues Brothers himself (who we saw earlier showing off on the dance-floor) who lent some odd but entertaining rapping on one track. Fun was had (methinks more for the band than the audience) when band members got on some helium to try to induce the crowd into a sing-a-long but this kind of fizzled out (perhaps we needed some helium too). Another highlight was their ultra sluggish take on TNT (featured on their first album Rebel Yellow). Nothing much at the moment sounds like the Sunshine Brothers and they successfully wooed the crowd with their uniqueness, synchronization and sense of fun. We all left satisfied to have spent our Sunday evening in such impressive company.

See the gallery by Shici