Check out all the pics from the show right here on FL.

The Living End have been together now for 15 years, and tonight they teamed up with two bands at different stages in their careers to showcase some great Australian rock.

A late-dusk set in an open air venue is the perfect setting for the dreamy psychadelia of Tame Impala, and a healthy crowd has gathered for the early set. As usual, Impala extend their songs into eight minute jam sessions, with lots of noodling from frontman Kevin Parker. The problem is, its the same jam sessions that feature in every Impala set – down the line, it may be hard for them to launch new songs in their live show, if the songs barely resemble their recorded counterparts. Of course, that doesnt matter tonight – the driving riffs and staccato beats of set closer Half Full Glass Of Wine provide the perfect chance for everyone to let their hair down and dance like a hippy.

Creating great rock music is a matter of finding lyrics, rhythms and melodies which work perfectly together. Most bands are lucky to find that perfect combination once in a career, yet Gyroscope seem to do it with consummate ease. Tonight’s set hits all the singles from their past three albums – older songs Safe Forever and Doctor Doctor sit perfectly alongside the newer These Days and All In On One. Gyroscope certainly know how to rock it live, with a large moshpit constantly on the move for every song. Of course, it’s easy to party when almost every song is a single – this is the same set we saw at last year’s Splendour and Sounds Of Spring festivals, including seguing the bridge of Fast Girl into a short cover of Beds Are Burning. With 45 minutes to play with, the band should have dropped some of the familiar, and taken a chance with some lesser-known songs. But that’s a critics complaint – Gyroscope can hardly be faulted for giving the people what they want, and they wrap up their set with Snakeskin. When the 15-to-18-year-olds of today become the 25-year-old bandmembers of tomorrow, Gyroscope are going to be the act that made them want to pick up a guitar.

Tonight is the first show of the Raise The Alarm tour, celebrating the third single from The Living End’s 2008 album White Noise. So it’s fitting that the boys take the stage with police red and blue lights flashing above the stage, and they open with the tour’s title track. Like Gyroscope, The Living End have a comprehensive back catalogue of hooky singles, and we get plenty of those tonight – Roll On and Second Solution have the crowd singing along. But the boys are here to spruik their new album too, and Moment In The Sun, Waiting For The Silence and Loaded Gun all make appearances. Any argument that The Living End are too populist fails to take into account the fact that frontman Chris Cheney is one of the best guitarists in Australia today, and he introduces popular-radio breakthrough hit All Torn Down with an extended guitar intro, and does so again for How Do We Know, throwing together moments from Thunderstruck and the the Peter Gunn theme.

Meanwhile, Scott Owen takes every opportunity to climb up on his bass while playing it, and shows off his furious flicking skills when End Of The World knocks it up a rockabilly notch. Prisoner Of Society makes a late appearance, but feels a little lacklustre, and the boys finish their main set with White Noise. After a short break, they reggae it up (as unusual a choice here as it was on their last album) with Sum Of Us, and then deliver long-time fan favourite Uncle Harry. Tonight’s final track is West End Riot, which has the whole crowd thrashing around in a riot of their own. On the way out, flyers are being handed out announcing the Living End as the headliner for this year’s Sounds Of Spring festival in September, and if it’s anything like tonight’s show, it’s going to go off with a bang.