There are two ways to interpret the opening performance of Kirin J Callinan. It’s either a genuine attempt at some sort of avant-garde crossover, which misses the mark by a long shot, or it’s a misconceived perception of humour. Either way, the performance is unnerving and difficult to sit through. Callinan is alone on stage with greasy oiled hair, dressed in only boxers and leather shoes. He layers his deep voice over droning guitar parts. Occasionally he crescendos up to louder more abrasive sections by gnashing at his strings. It’s pretentious, it’s obnoxious and judging by the way the crowd increased exponentially upon his exit, it’s doubtful he would have sold any of his demo cassettes.

Dappled Cities have no trouble at all ushering the crowd back into the Hi-Fi with a set of brisk indie pop. The majority of the material is relatively new, and only a small handful of punters appear overly interested. Timothy Derricourt is like a school boy pepped up on red cordial as he and fellow guitarist Dave Rennick remain in a constant state of flux between smoother more rhythmical movements to jagged spasms. The other members are less motivated, quietly letting the frontmen work their magic. Though at times a little tedious Dappled Cities still produce an enjoyable, yet not quite memorable performance.

There is no glorious entry for Midnight Juggernauts, casually strolling onto the Hi-Fi stage. It’s a mixed affair sound-wise with a lot of the samples being overpowered by the drums and guitars. the vocals, at times, also lacking some much needed clarity. Daniel Stricker is having nothing to do with the predictable drumbeats that are all too common in most dance-acts, rarely sticking to a single rhythmic pattern as he litters the pieces with tom fills even if his vocal microphone appears to get in the way. Vincent Vendetta and Andy Szekeres continuously swap duties between guitar bass and synthesisers intricately melding effects to take the audience members on a psychedelic dance-journey through the cosmos.

The older songs like Shadows and Tombstone receive a luke-warm response with a reasonable handful of audience members participating. The newer expansive cosmic journeys are met with appreciation, but not with enthusiasm. The exception to this being the singles like Vital Signs in which the audience embrace the groove. During the performance, 1970s Dr Who style special effects are projected onto the back of the stage, whilst coloured lights produce shadows on the left hand side of the stage, bathed in a neon blue light.

Whilst the first song in their encore appears rather underwhelming, the moment is contrasted by the space odyssey finale that is Into The Galaxy. Kirin J Callinan wanders onto the stage with a tamborine and removes his pants before leaping around flamboyantly like a ballet dancer. It’s rather self-indulgent but the boys from Dappled Cities burst onto the stage and divert the attention away from him. They begin to joyously dance around and beat instruments with drum sticks. A few punters jump on stage and frivolously dance whilst bodies in the mosh pit pulse to the beat. Security doesn’t even lift a finger. In the final moments members from all bands tear the drum kit to pieces and drumsticks shoot out into the audience like meteors. Turbulent moments like this would have helped the set immensely and in the end it feels like too little, too late.