CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE SHOW HERE.

Monday night isn’t normally reserved for partying. But it’s not every night that The Black Lips play in town. After having impressed the masses of punters who saw them at the Laneway Festivals across the country it seems their fan base has swollen from a few hipsters and indie nerds to the general festival-going-contingent. LOOK OUT GRINSPOON!

The Black Lips are right in the middle of a huge tour and Australia is just another stop on their jaunt, with the next few weeks sending them to Japan and North America right through to April. If they put on half a good show at the upcoming 21 shows as they did tonight, the crowd will be in for a treat.

First up are two local acts: Royal Headache (from Sydney) and The Twerps (from Melbourne. How local? Local if I am reviewing an American band yo). Someone has started to notice Royal Headache of late, as they keep getting bigger support slots (Health and uh, Girl Talk).

Together they blend all manner of punk rawk with dirty blues and have the attitudes to match. Unfortunately, it being a school night, not many people who know them came out to watch, so they played to a virtually empty room. A shame – they will get bigger and people will start noticing.

You can blame it on (500) Days of Summer or Vice Magazine, but the crowd is a mish-mash of trendy hipster kids who’d pretty much fill out the Do’s and Don’ts Section of the aforementioned magazine. Plenty of lens-less black rimmed glasses and Suicidal Tendencies-inspired flip caps are to be seen, but there are also normal-looking people with good taste in music. These are my people. Wear your flannel shirt and hippie beards with pride people!

When The Black Lips take to the stage, it’s instant chaos: crowd surfing and pogoing takes over the first few rows and it’s like watching an earthquake in slow motion. After touring the country with the Laneway Festival AND playing their own headline shows AND this being the last Australian show AND them flying out tomorrow, you’d think they’d be subdued. This is not the case, as they have the energy as if it was the first show they’ve ever played.

A healthy mix of old and new songs are played and tracks such as O Katrina, It Feels Alright, Boomerang and Short Fuse are all delivered with gusto, but it’s inevitable that Bad Kids will garner the biggest response. The songs sound as raw and dirty as usual; but the PA probably could have been better. At times it was like listening to Welcome to the Jungle that I taped off the radio back in 1993.

They play for just over an hour and in that time people rush the stage, everyone gets covered in sweat and guitarist Cole Alexander throws up twice. Bass guitarist Jared Swilley says he’s gonna party the night away as they leave Australia tomorrow and proceeds to crowd surf, with all the hands in the audience eager to carry him wherever he wants to go.

Sure the sound wasn’t great and they could have played for longer, but they were still mesmerising to watch and they put everything they had into this show. For a Monday night in Sydney this is as rock and roll as it gets.

(Oh, and Cole, I know you say you have a medical condition, but I’m just throwing it out there: Ginger Root Tablets will cure that vomiting.)