A packed Northcote Social Club was on hand to watch Magic Silver White, the opening act for Richard In Your Mind’s album launch. The Melbourne supergroup, who play the kind of classic pop that is almost fit for a Las Vegas showroom, comprises of members of bands including Qua, Mountains in the Sky and Mononoke . With three female vocalists/keyboardists across the front- Jojo Petrina, Biddy Connor and Monica Sonand- and two guys adding drums and bass/guitar, the five piece impressed a surprisingly full bandroom.

Qua’s Cornel Wilczek, who bears more than a slight resemblance to Foals’ singer Yannis Philippakis, interchanged between bass and guitar for the last two songs, and much like the two proceeding bands, it was hard to know where to look. The women demanded attention as the centrepiece, but there was almost always something else attention-worthy happening (including Connor’s quick stint on the violin during the breakdown of the last song).

High expectations were held for Rat vs Possum, the main support for the night. Floor toms were positioned all around the stage as they set up their show. I’m unsure if they played mostly new material, or maybe the album tracks were too hard to distinguish in the madness; but I am sure that Rat vs Possum are brilliant.

Like Dirty Three playing electronic-tribal-psych-jungle-space-pop, the Melbourne quintet gave it their all in a performance that had the half the room in standing in awe and the other half dancing. There are no words to give justice to the brilliance of Rat vs Possum’s set; the comparison to Dirty Three isn’t one just thrown around.

Like Magic Silver White, RvP set up with the trio of Daphne Shum, Kieran O’Shea and Matt Kulesza at the forefront, with all contributing vocals and occasionally breaking loose on their floor toms in perfect synchrony. Again, all the members demand attention, especially the excellent drummer who was lucky to not break everything he hit; such was the intensity of his playing.

Following such a fantastic performance, Sydney’s Richard In Your Mind had their work cut out to impress on the night of their Melbourne album launch. The curtains pulled open to reveal the band donning leaf leis, leaving lead man Richard Cartwright’s part-shy, part-nerdy and part-cute personality immediately noticeable.

Birds and Tiny Collosus Face, both off their latest effort My Volcano , were dropped early to good receptions. Cartwright’s vocals translate perfectly into the live setting, with the vocal effects used on the album employed flawlessly throughout the set.

Their ability to translate the album so well into the live arena was greatly aided by energetic sample maestro Conrad Richters, who may well have been situated on a trampoline given his ability to jump nonstop throughout the set.

I Will and The Sun Broke Into Your Heart also featured, with the latter being particularly memorable. Cartwright opened it with his acoustic guitar before the rest of the band slowly joined him to help build and destroy the song in a near-perfect replication of the album version.

Jordie Lane’s electric guitar, Pat Torres’ drums and Brent Griffin’s bass gave many of the My Volcano songs a rockier edge, as opposed to the electronic slant of the record. This was particularly evident during Candelabra, when the band cut loose on their guitars for the first of a few times.

The other unforgettable instance of this occurred during the epic set-closer Flower Of The Heart, which Cartwright seriously underestimated as “kind of crazy.” The vocal manipulation was again perfectly executed, as was Lane’s guitar solo that opened the stage up to chaos. Cartwright threw his guitar off and picked up a small can of red paint, which he whipped all over his bare chest and the foreheads of the other four band members.

He then reclaimed his guitar and went wild with Lane as both violently swang their guitars towards their amplifiers in order to create ear busting reverb; simultaneously, Torres created a tribal freak out drum rhythm to add to the crashing and smashing noise that was coming from the stage.

As the band staggered off stage, Cartwright decided he wanted some more and convinced the band to rejoin him for another number that saw him use a harmonica.

On the night of their album launch, Richard In Your Mind looked as if they might be outdone by support act Rat vs Possum. However, they lived up to the hype created by My Volcano and delivered exactly what their fans would have wanted: strangeness and eccentricity, and lots of it.