Delights is an odd name for a band. It sounds like it should really be ‘The Delights’ or ‘Delights Something-else-to-fill-space’, but I digress. Delights are truly amazing musicians who captivate their audience. It also helps that their guitarist Jake Milligan had the ‘ants-in-pants’ disease that seems to commonly afflict hot rock guitarists like Johnny from Children Collide. It’s a disease which pretty much prevents the sufferer/musician from keeping still whilst playing, meaning they have to stomp their feet or dance around cleverly onstage. It looked like they were about to strangle themselves in the serious tangle of guitar leads at any moment, and the guitarist’s playing was so frantic that he even broke a string onstage (apparently a common event for Delights). They opened with the most excellent but curiously titled The Shockingly True Tale of Cold Johanna (especially since their lead singer’s name is Joel Hanna), and also played Changed, Sinners, King Of It All, Get Up And Start A Riot You Kids, Breathing and Okay.

A particularly humourous moment during their set involved two blokes sitting at a table looking particularly out of place with the trendy Evelyn crowd (they were wearing baggy jeans and neon hoodies). The first guy nudged his pal, ‘C’mon mate, no one’s dancing. It makes our mates look bad!’ ‘Nah dude, apparently this is what music people do when they listen to bands.’ The first guy then went, ‘Ah, who cares?’ and proceeded to breakdance in the way that only a drunk white man can breakdance, much to the amusement of the band.

Zeahorse, the second band of the night, took shoegaze to a whole new level. It was more like shoe kissing, with guitarists Morgan Anthony and Max Xam constantly fiddling with their effects board. Their brand of psychedelic rock lends itself to the ‘zombie dance’, which involves the guitarist standing hunched in front of their amp, instrument dangling in their limp arms as they sway back and forth to get just right mix of feedback. One impressed musician in the crowd commented on Max’s playing, ‘Wow, now that guy has all the frequencies covered!’

A delightfully grungey mix of punk and indie, every single track of their set was exceptional. Their set list included Fruitcake, Deadman, Propolis, Massacre, Jesus, Victim and Spider, and their playing was so hard that their poor guitars had to undertake some serious re-tuneage halfway through their set. The Evelyn gig was part of their ‘Melbourne Massacre’ tour, fitting because their overall sound was more of an aural assault and would not be recommended for people with migraines or a strong dislike for feedback (the musical equivalent of nails-on-a-chalkboard). Though highly recommended for fans of Fugazi, Nirvana and Johnny Depp (singer Morgan Anthony looked like Johnny Deep’s doppelganger, but I do have horrible eyesight and could be terribly wrong).

Bands like Zeahorse should come with a warning along the lines of, ‘Danger: do not perform after us.’ Their set was so incredibly electric and hectic that any band playing after them would have a hard time, and would probably have to be heavier, feedback-ier, squealier (if those are actually words). Skye Harbour are unfortunately none of those things.

It seemed like their set started off loosely, but might have had nothing to do with the band’s performance, and more to influenced by the fact that the crowd were still in awe of Zeahorse or the really stark contrast between genres. Where Zeahorse are a psychedelic grunge band, Skye Harbour are far more straight laced pop rock. Luckily for the band, they seemed to bring their own troupe of adoring fans to help ease the rest of the crowd through the transition. It was only when they played Our Love that their sound seemed to pull together, and they brought it home with their epic pop song Houses. They also played Wasted, Hunch, Berlin, Bells, Parklife, and the very space-age Katsu Chron.

At the scheduled time, the excited crowd at the Evelyn Hotel all cosied up to the stage in preparation for Red Ink, and were treated to an onstage explosion of pop rock as they opened with Antedote and Kleptomaniac. For Werewolf, singer John Jakubenko sprung off backstage, only to return to the spotlight seconds later wearing a tee-shirt with a picture of a wolf. It was such a rad shirt that Delights even tweeted a message to Red Ink about it (”@delightsband Where can I get myself a wolf tee? @redinkrock”).

All the hype about Red Ink is true. Singer John really is like the human form of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh – crazy, wild, slightly worrying to watch, and a hell of a frontman. The rest of his band didn’t seem even the slightest bit unfazed by his crazy gallivanting about stage, and they even seemed to join in at times. It was like peering into a bunch of thirteen year old boys mucking around and playing air guitar at a slumber party, except there were real guitars. John was either hanging off an exposed beam from the ceiling of the Evelyn, swaying violently on his knees, impersonating a helicopter or doing something in between. It was also quite possible that he came onstage with pocketfuls of confetti, because halfway through Thing We’ve Done he seemed to magically pull confetti out of nowhere (then started to not-so-magically scrape it off the stage floor to throw it up again).

Red Ink’s energetic set also included Fireworks, Cold Outside, Love Park, Dead Sicko, What You Want and Going Insane. Of course, their Audrey single launch would not be complete without them performing said track, which they did with such fervour that it’s amazing they didn’t damage their equipment or themselves.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE