Anticipation was rife for the first of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Melbourne shows. In town to celebrate the New Year as part of the annual Falls Festival outing, the beloved trio gave fans a taste of just how the band are going to see out the decade.

Fashionably late, punters were treated to an excruciatingly long recorded track punctuated with random screeches whilst mindlessly gazing at the orange-lit stage. A single eyeball suspended in the midst of a glittery blue swirl completed the spectacle.

Despite the winces and constant watch checking, all was forgiven the moment the lights dimmed and the band, sans the inimitable Karen Orzelek, causing a momentary sea of swiveling heads as the eager crowd tried to follow the source of the voice.

Speculation as to where she was and what she would be wearing ended in a huge roar of acclaim as Karen O emerged, wasting no time launching into a loaded set featuring crowd favourites Gold Lion, Heads will Roll and Phenomena.

Nick Zinner and Brian Chase are the perfect compatriots – insanely talented yet more then happy to leave the main focus on Orzelek. Yet, in the absence of the flamboyant vocalist, both lads still mesmerise with their individual performances.

Various costume changes kicked on over the course of the set – mainly comprising of sparkly numbers that worked with the red leggings and dress Orzelek was rocking. Orzelek kicked, punched and gyrated her way through the set, the enchanted crowd celebrating her every movement, yet around the halfway mark of the set, the poses and actions felt somewhat contrived and lacked the natural flow of as evidenced earlier in the set.

Inconsistent sound occasionally caused Orzelek’s distinctive voice to become somewhat scratchy and harsh, but being the consummate professional, at no point during the night did Orzelek drop a note or lose her focus.

The punters joined Orzelek in serenading their sound technician with a rowdy version of happy birthday in a particularly touching moment of the evening, which was later surpassed by the highlight of the evening – a stripped back acoustic version of Maps, which can only be described as beautiful and heart wrenching. Yeah Yeah Yeahs made light work of their biggest show to date – it’ll be interesting to see if the future brings ever bigger things for them

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW HERE