Club Next is one of those weekly triple-decker rock – œn dance extravaganzas that are traditionally frequented by uni nighters and their underage friends. Sadly, the unusually thorough security has put a stop to the latter, and the former are away on holidays – as a result the club’s attendance did seem somewhat diminished for this event.

Be-blackened goths and rock kids spread out over this most unsual of venues – it’s all rainbow lights, big plasma screens and catwalks. The venue strikes me as a place better suited to Fashion Week shows then rock-metal events. The main frustration is with the epic-sized plasma positioned directly behind the performers’ heads – in all manner of fluro tones and spouting gibberish ads, it’s hard to miss; distracting and a complete mood-destroyer.

To the openers. Gold Coast metalcore act Lynchmada seemed an ill-fitting match for industro-dance stalwarts MM9… it’s all indistinguishable lyrics, black clothing, and ear-splitting screams. Didn’t this kind of hardcore head west, um, like three years ago? Unfortunately, the four-piece bring nothing new to a scene so badly in need of innovators. I banish thee back to the depths of 2005! Begone!

A quick run up the spiral staircase (the venue has something of the look of an old fire-house) reveals a room bopping to the beats of clubland kidults… then Michael Jackson comes on and, it seems, no-one can resist. A somewhat surreal experience when you consider sound leakage – maddening screams and Billy Jean, anyone?!

Local trio K-Oscillate were certainly the most striking performers of the night. How to explain the cloudy streams of oddness that cascaded from their amps? The best I’ve come up with is – œelectro-manipu-pop’: plenty of keys, a raft of computers, live drums and guitars produce a sea of bizarre and sometimes spiky audio landscape, that somehow seems to merge and bend itself into some unusual semblence of a pop melody. Added to this is the rap/sung reggae-crooning of Hugo (MC) and Max (drums and voice). An odd blend of rave and rasta, electro and rap creates something that should sound an adulterated mess but somehow just works – think Ministry’s ability to meld twisted chunks of industrial steel into pure dance frenzy; Bjork’s certain tack of alchemising genreless crooning into pop gold. While not quite at that level yet, this is something strange and unusual and rare – I hope they go far.

The room is steadily filling, and it’s soon time for electro-industrial rocksters MM9 to take the stage. Once staples of the ever-diminishing pool of quality Aussie fusion-metal, the band have been making a slow move towards the electronic dance of Cut Copy, The Presets et al. for a number of years now. While the fusion of guitars and a wicked synth track can be a truly glorious thing to behold, MM9 seem to have lost much of their passion and emotional depth with this paradigm shift – no-where is this more obvious than in their live show.

While much of the set seemed focused on the newer, blander tracks, it seems to pivot around the old favourites – the crowd visably pep up when they dust them off – though even they just don’t sparkle like they used to. Trains came close – re-invigorated as it was as a tough dance number, augmented by also-classic New Kill Break. The odd isle of a catchy sample or a blazing guitar riff helped keep things alive, yet the set never really sustained the momentum it needed to keep punters engaged. While singer Dan Sutherland still retains some of his magnetism as a performer, the real star in this band is Ben Ellingworth – the solid drummer shines through as one of the best sticks-men in the country. His anchoring beat drives and bolts the set down – preventing what sometimes feels like a band rushing through their tunes.

The best descriptor of this show is the somewhat backhanded – œsolid’. Enjoyable in places, derivative and soulless in others – not terribly bad, not particularly good. The boys are working on another album at the moment – from what I’ve seen, the spark is still there: we can only hope they can harness that fragile flame and bring it back to an almighty roaring blaze.

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE