CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.

On a cold and blustery night in Adelaide’s’ seminal live gig venue, The Governor Hindmarsh, a small cohort of the city’s punters braved the chill seeking synth and warmth. Local act Steering By Stars offered the 100 or so early arrivals an atmospheric and layered set of complicated drumming and Joy Division-esque echoes, including their impressive single Closer off debut album Cables. The crowd size did not get much past embarrassingly small for when Sydnersiders Dappled Cities took to the stage, this time dressed in a blend of hipster threads and floral shirts, and a Phil Collins tour tee courtesy of Alex Moore thrown in for good measure. Promising a “bunch of new stuff no one in Australia has ever heard”, the merchants of feelgood melancholia treated the now bobbing crowd to sounds from an impending release, as well as a couple of surefire hits such as The Price.

With the stage awash in blue, and the errie intro music booming over the heads of the embarrassingly tiny crowd (say 250 people), Vincent, Andrew and Daniel of*Midnight Juggernauts *take to the stage. The jolting bassline of Winds of Fortune melds into the intro music, and the trio set the intergalactic, multi-coloured scene for their soon to be released sophomore album, The Crystal Axis. Abound with energy and apologies for their last, lazy show at the same venue – “we were like from that scene in the Blues Brothers – you should have thrown shit at us”, the small but appreciative crowd pulsated with the excitement of a Saturday night; especially once the pristine single Shadows hit the room. Andrew and Vincent pick up some sticks and play cowbell and a floor tom respectively whilst head drummer Daniel thrashes away during the robotic Tombstone, then recent issue This New Technology. By this stage, thankfully, the Gov’s band room is in the midst of a mini dance-off, and the frenzied front rows lapped up the mammoth Road To Recovery. The crowds’ energy is kept alive via excited claps and whistles whilst the band exit stage left to, as Vincent put it, ‘refill his wine glass’, then leaping into new single Lifeblood Flow, and closing with the Bowie-channelling Into The Galaxy.

Once the house lights shone through, the dazed looks on the faces of those emerging from the mosh portrayed just how surprisingly empty the room truly was, despite the unrelenting and energetic set the Juggers gave this select few. As the band themselves said, this set was of a quality they were proud of; if only more Adelaidians were there to appreciate it.

CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS HERE.