Muggy weather and exhaustion don’t mix well. Arriving at my favourite venue in town, I realise I’ve already missed drone-rockers The Z-Rays’ opening set and therefore have no choice but to absorb The Incredible Strand’s no-bullshit, driving rock & roll. The local quartet are impeccably tight, wah-wah-licious and – particularly on the closer When The Speed Of Light Hesitates – genuinely clever, while singer/guitarist Sean ’s gutbucket screams are downright hellacious.

Kicking off his band Mexico City’s slot by loudly reflecting on his heavy intake of Mexican food (and admitting it was a “bad joke”), Adam Toole looks set to burn our intestines like a jalapeno, yet only manages to attain mild spiciness. The four-piece run the gamut between minor-key country, garage and swamp rock to varying degrees of success; lead guitarist Simon Radich unleashes plentiful Neil Young-recalling bends, but the impression left by the previous band ultimately proves hard to top.

From the offset, Melbourne’s The Pictures hammer home a simple message: You Am I we ain’t, folks. In fact, only Can You Hear It sounds remotely like anything from Hi Fi Way; the rest could be loosely described as Dallas Crane hooking up with Supergrass. Looking like a male model from a 1973 fashion mag, Davey Lane runs through a sequence of retro-hued stompers and Beatlesque midtempo pieces from the trio’s yet-unreleased new album Kicking Indifference and previous efforts Pieces Of Eight and The Fantastic Sounds Of The Pictures. Bassist Luke Thomas (assuming deadset Pete Hook poses) sings the confident To The Top and Cabin Fever, while new drummer Joel Ellis (Dave’s brother-in-law) keeps a solid beat; the one rather unexpected shortcoming is Lane himself, who, while being a rock guitarist par excellence, lacks both the charisma and the gravity of his employer Tim Rogers. The above factors, however, don’t affect his vocals and effortless, vintage command of the Epiphone Casino and the Telecaster – the funky Give It Some goes down a treat. Keep playing them licks, Davey boy – both at your day and part-time jobs!