Thursday night at the ANU Bar was all about love. The harmonious vibe drifted around the venue last Thursday night, free of drunks, wild crowds and heartbreak.

Supporting Youth Group and theredsunband on their national tour is Laura Imbruglia. Her set carried all her renowned traits such as her distinct voice over her acoustic guitar strumming and not being afraid to make mistakes while playing. Even though there were only a handful of punters near the performance area, the ones that were present seemed to enjoy listening to her unique and at times rough vocals and applauded her as such. As there was not an impressive crowd there for her set, she did not bother with the eccentric stage presence or crowd interaction she has known to have in the past since the crowd didn’t seem to be in the mood for interaction either.

When punters heard the spacey, upbeat electric guitar riffs, it could have only been theredsunband bringing everyone over to where they are supposed to be. Their set featured a majority of the songs off their recent album The Shiralee, including Heartbreaker, Bathysphere and the radio friendly hit The Eagle.

Frontwoman Sarah Kelly’s stage charisma improved over their set as she seemed a little uptight and nervous at the start. The new drummer Jasper provided desirable backing vocals, which makes one wonder whether he has always been a drummer, but Lizzie Kelly on the keyboard seemed a little audience shy as she refrained herself the dorms of the keyboard and synthesiser for most of the set and looked like a scarecrow.

To finish off the night were headliners and redsunband tour buddies Youth Group who began their set with radio hit Two Sides. With the combination of Toby Martin’s vocals and the backing pop rock tunes it seems that Youth Group is determined to find their roots again and remember why they formed the band. It seems that they may have lost their fans that liked them during the Forever Young era and re-connected with their old fans who liked their earlier work. Their new album The Night is Ours is a true highlight of 2008 but it is a shame that it hasn’t received the true recognition that it deserves as their new sound may not be as mainstream as it was on their last album but they should receive a pat on the back for trying to mix the old with the new.

Towards the end of their set they invited theredsunband back on stage for a duet of Jesus & Mary Chain’s Sometimes Always with Laura Imbruglia shaking a tambourine in the background. According to Martin it has become a ritual on their tour to perform this duo song and if they didn’t something would be wrong.

To my surprise Youth Group played Forever Young but changed it slightly to a more instrumental version and made it a duo song with theredsunband. Maybe they have accepted the song as it is and continue to play it live to keep fans happy as they can’t pretend the song never happened.