“A blunder is a careless, stupid, or blatant mistake involving behaviour or judgement; it suggests awkwardness or ignorance on the part of the person who makes it.” – Mac OS, Dictionary widget

People don’t always agree on what is or isn’t a mistake, but my missing the Shock! Horror! set on Friday night was universally recognised as blunder of the week. Several of the band’s faithful were there to rub it in as well, which made it even more galling.

But never mind, the Voltaire Twins followed with a predictably solid set. Unlike their humble reviewer, mistakes and blunders are an endangered species in their performances, and these guys are quickly becoming a music journalists nightmare, as there’s not much to write about when every set is as good as the last. With Jaymes Voltaire handing out and receiving drinks from keen punters, and several crowd members jumping onstage to help prop up falling microphones, the band seemed more at home in the intimate setting of Amplifier rather than at larger venues like their Metro City gig last month. And despite the bass drum microphone falling over several times, the music shone as well. Precursing their single launch this Friday, their upbeat and dreamy dance favourites DIL and The Kate Bush were well refined, as was the darker but equally catchy London.

Then finally, Lost Valentinos. The band has been prowling around Australia’s music scene in different forms for almost 10 years now, but only recently have they experienced a healthy dose of mainstream attention. Fresh from a European tour, and travelling Australia on the back of their new album Cities of Gold, the dance floor filled close to capacity as punters watched and waited. Over their long career the band has built a reputation linked closely to their hectic live performance, so expectations were high, and what was delivered was on par. The indie dance melange Lost Valentinos play lends itself well to live performance, and most of the set had punters jumping and flailing. The energy in the crowd was matched onstage, and the weird tribal undertones of the driving rhythms in tracks like Serio combined well with other tamer favourites like Thief. It feels good to be able to witness in person an Aussie band that’s starting to make it pulling off such original and entertaining material.