Seeing Kirin J Callinan in his Rocky Horror inspired stockings, skirt, denim jacket, slicked down hair and make-up was an interesting, oddball choice. His solo guitar and wailing vocal sounds weren’t very audible however the visual and aural combination inspired conversation and comment if not cheering and pulling of audience focus. He clearly seemed into his music more than the audience and was pleased with his efforts to produce interesting sounds with his handful of guitar pedals and electric guitar. He tried his hardest to woo the waiting crowd, but it just wasn’t happening.

Dappled Cities took to the stage, also through what seemed like a muddy audio mix. The lead singer apologised for what we were about to hear (never a good sign) and then they played mostly songs off their latest album. The audience wasn’t really feeling the vibe and perhaps the band could tell. They only really reacted to the singles and the place was 3/4’s full during most of their set.

Canyons were there in the form of a DJ set that did offer some inspiring beats and managed to move the crowd though as they weren’t on stage the crowd would have perhaps have missed them and just thought it was filler music which is a shame.

Waiting 45 minutes between Dappled and Midnight Juggernauts did not bode well for the legs. After a little fanfare the Juggers took to the stage. The applause was vigorous and the boys lapped it up. Their touring party was augmented by one tonight and the stage set up looked a little off. Usually the best audio mix of the night is saved for the headlining act, however this was not the case here as it seemed the keys vocals and bass were thrown into a blender, shaken and stirred and came out beaten to death.

The highlight of the evening – if you can all it that was Tombstone, though the vocoder seemed more Kanye West infused than rock. This is where the set seemed to peak and the audience of the faithful weren’t invested for too much longer. Moshing did occur but from only the first couple of rows up front and the rest of the floor crowd seemed to watch on in awe at what their ears were being subjected to. The keyboard vamping that inspired the movement seemed to lose momentum mid song.

There seemed to be a steady stream of patrons who decided to leave before night’s end and it wasn’t entirely surprising. The Juggers may have been ahead of the new wave dance curve though fought hard with the audience to get it happening tonight.

Drummer Daniel Stricker is famous for on stage antics such as stage-diving into his kit. No such acrobatics were on display here however he remained the stand-out of the night, especially as one of his cymbals fell mid song and he held it, and kept playing without missing a beat until the stagehand came to rectify the issue.

Unfortunately Stricker was clearly the most energised person in the room let alone on stage. It is a shame it wasn’t the music as a whole that drew me in. A rather underwhelming performance from a band NME hails as Australia’s answer to Muse.

Check out the photos here