The Trilogy Tour hit the Corner Hotel on Friday night for its Melbourne leg of the extensive tour. Nearing the end of the 23 dates, it was clear that the three acts were comfortable playing with one another, and together brought a decent night out to Melbourne town.

Opening to a considerably smaller crowd than would be present later on, current New Zealand heroes, Mightnight Youth tackled their set like they were playing to a full house. Full of obvious confidence, they stressed their desire for people to show some love down front before opening with Cavalry. The chant heavy tune was a good choice for an opener and along with the introduction of the great light setup for the night, Midnight Youth kicked things off in style.

Frontman Jeremy Redmore certainly has a good set of lungs and impressed the smaller crowd as he belted out some hefty notes. His lack of instrument meant he got to show off his awkward dancing as well, and there was no shortage of air guitar or air drums entering his repertoire. The acoustic guitar made an appearance in his hands for Dead Flowers though. The amount of similar reverb heavy numbers did begin to wane a little toward the end of the set, but the fun piano of Benjamin – complete with an interlude of the rockier Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love – did round things out on a more memorable note.

Not close to as memorable was the second team up to bat – Trial Kennedy. Whilst they had the home town advantage over Midnight Youth, all the locals boys could deliver was one rock cliché after another. Swigging beer to spray in the air, vacant and longing stares into the crowd and a microphone that was conveniently too high for front man Tim Morrison all added up for a selection of “classic” rock moves. If that wasn’t enough, Morrison wasn’t shy of making orders, with the super cringe worthy demand: “I wanna hear you sing along or you’re all fucked.”

Despite their rehashed rock moves they delivered their songs consistently live. Morrison’s range is mighty impressive and took off during the token ballad of the set. They did fall into a similar trap to that of the first band and each song became a little too close to the next; Morrison using the same vocal tricks at every turn. Perhaps they were a little too consistent. Neighbours – the closing tune – was the saving grace for Trial Kennedy and meant the set wasn’t a complete bore.

Having not seen Dukes of Windsor since their earlier days, it was interesting to see where they’ve headed or how they’ve changed. Aside from nearly culling all of their old material (one song from their debut was played), the live show is still much the same – full of energy and danceable fun. Jack Weaving looked like he was up for a good time as he danced around the stage to opener Refuse, bumping into every member as he went. The light show was going full pelt as well and during many of the songs that followed it was hard to keep your eyes open.

The singles that Dukes of Windsor have released along the way were definite crowd pleasers, with The Others proving, as always, to be a great club-friendly tune and Get It the most fun in their collection. The band were trialling new material on the tour, with three numbers titled Melt, Chemical and Cathedral all reproducing the rock/dance blend of the group (the last of the three the stand out). This being the band’s last show in Melbourne for some time (they’re off to Berlin), it was good to hear to some new stuff before they disappeared.

Happy to help one another out, various members from the first two bands could be spotted on stage at the end of the Dukes set, with three drummers beating away at the back during the unstoppable It’s A War. The song would have been a happy ending to the show, but apparently there had to be an obligatory encore (“Don’t you love it when a band asks for their own encore?” asked Weaving) Luckily, No Disguise was equally as fun and amongst the other positive Dukes of Windsor moments made up for the lack of delight earlier in the night.