From the future, yet straight out of the 1980s, Melbourne synth-pop darlings The Galvatrons landed their spaceship at Spectrum last Saturday evening on a mission to save the world, and bring the fun back to music.

First off the mark for the night were Goulburn rockers Thomy and The Tanks. While not my cup of tea, they punched out an inspired guitar driven set that seemed to get the crowd pumped. Individually, these guys are good. Very good. Virtuoso guitarist Matt Elms absolutely shreds on the six-string, nailing a solo as well as any axe-man I’ve ever seen. Meanwhile, the bizarre onstage antics of charismatic frontman Thomy Sloane are strangely compelling. The thing is, the band as a whole, just didn’t do it for me. They weren’t bad (in fact far from it) – they just didn’t have that – œwow’ factor.

Next to hit the stage were Sydney locals, The Salvagers, with their infectious brand of pop rock. If these fresh-faced whiz-kids happen to stumble upon a breakthrough single, they’re going to explode like a can of Coke left in a hot car. It took me half their set to figure it out, but if you cross the catchy pop hooks of Yellowcard with the heavier rock sounds of The Foo Fighters, and add a dash of electro, you’d be getting pretty damn close. One to watch out for.

I just don’t know about Johnny and his Galvatrons. As they came bounding out to explosive opener She’s In Love, the band gave in to all the clichés: the long hair, the epic sounds, the classic poses and the fist pumps every half a dozen bars. But my God, it was brilliant.

Tonight’s gig was either the start or the finish of a whirlwind journey for The Galvatrons. They could be winding down from their meteoric rise last year on the back of their mega smash hit When We Were Kids; or on the other hand, revving up for something even bigger and better with their debut album due in the coming weeks. Either way, the band put on one hell of a show.

Each song sent the crowd further into hysterics. Playing tracks from their EP, as well as new ones from their forthcoming album Laser Graffiti, the lively crowd responded enthusiastically to absolutely everything the band threw at them. Johnny and his cohorts, in turn, channelled the enthusiasm back into their performance.

Johnny himself is the ultimate performer, with all the swagger of a big time rock star. A touching moment of humility did come, however, when he announced to the adoring crowd that it was keyboardist Gamma Ray’s birthday, indulging his friend (tongue-in-cheek) with a 60-second solo as a present.

Then, after close to an hour on stage, the Melbourne four-piece wrapped things up all guns blazing with their two biggest hits to date: Kids and sing-along closer Cassandra. In a refreshing change, the band didn’t bother with an encore (bassist Condor reasoned that if they walked off stage, “we’re just gonna walk straight back up here anyway”). Instead, they closed the show with audience favourite Robots Are Cool. All up, a thoroughly enjoyable performance from a band with big things ahead. I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun at a gig.