They may have been getting rave reviews at their most recent gigs around the country, but when the Sweet ‘n’ Low festival hit the Hydey, headliners Youth Group had to share the limelight, billed above New Buffalo, Holly Throsby, The Bank Holidays, The Silents, Schvendes and Burton Cool Suit.

Sure, music doesn’t have to be about competitions and outdoing the other acts on the bill, but tonight definitely feels like a contest, with the two-room setup separating indie-pop from the more delicate sounds of New Buffalo and Holly Throsby as well as the moody strains of Schvendes. With punters packed into the front bar like sardines, it’s hard to move from one stage to the other so on the whole, tonight is almost like two separate gigs running side by side.

Opening proceedings in the lounge bar are Burton Cool Suit, who, featuring members of Turnstyle and the Bank Holidays, are well-acquainted with what makes a good pop song. Due to the 6.30pm set time the guys play to a virtually empty room, but it doesn’t seem to bother them. Their stage presence is still lacking, with a keyboard smack-bang in the middle of the stage, but tonight’s performance is more upbeat and guitarist Nat Carson is obviously enjoying himself, shimmying and shuffling around the stage as if nobody is watching.

First on in the front bar are Schvendes, who are definitely at home here at the Hydey. In what must be their 378th appearance here, the five-piece gives a pretty intense, albeit slightly predictable and contrived, showing. The band is evidently still coming to terms with losing their second guitarist and the scaled-down lineup doesn’t quite balance out their well-thought, intricate sounds with spontaneity like the previous lineup did.

Back in the lounge bar, The Silents are about to go on stage. With their recent move away from hooky 1960s pop, the band seems eager to show off their new material. There are still a few old songs there to get your feet tapping, but tonight’s set is pretty big on extended jams, warped intros and unusual effects. The crowd seems to like it, even if it isn’t quite as catchy as the style they’re known for.

As The Silents’ set finishes up, Holly Throsby has already been playing for a while in the front bar and anyone still at the lounge bar has missed probably the best act of the night. The room is packed to the rafters and several people are even sitting on the stage to have a listen. She looks as though she’s barely out of her teens but with just her vocal talents and guitar, Throsby has the whole room dead silent apart from the sound of a couple of hundred hearts breaking. You can’t fault this girl at all: her voice is soft yet confident, and as the words flow as though it’s her stream of consciousness she commands a strong melody that carries the lyrics beautifully.

Following Throsby was always going to be a tough task for The Bank Holidays, but the four-piece pop act never seems to care about the time or place and always has fun regardless. With a new EP out, they leave most of the songs from last year’s Good Looks to Camera and stick with newer material, much of it hot off the press. There isn’t really too much to read into with this band. All of the songs are fun, all of the songs are catchy and you can be sure they’ll be sticking with this formula for a while yet.

New Buffalo headlines the front bar lineup tonight, and in massive defiance of the laws of physics, punters continue to pour into the front bar. Like Throsby, New Buffalo can’t be faulted with tonight’s performance. The delivery is virtually spot-on and the massive crowd loves it. Compared to Throsby though, New Buffalo’s sound is more layered and complex and the virtually non-existent mix means the sound doesn’t fill the room and doesn’t hit you like it would through headphones. In the right venue, this performance would have floored even the strongest critic, but unfortunately only those near enough to the band’s amps would have got the intended effect.

Following acts like The Silents, The Bank Holidays and New Buffalo was always going to be tough for Youth Group. Anyone could leave early and still be satisfied with the quality of tonight’s acts. Those sticking around don’t seem at all like a Youth Group crowd, rather, a local music crowd keen to have a look at what the other states have to offer. To their credit, the show is easily on a par with the rest of the bands on the bill. With the front bar acts finished, everyone in the venue has moved into the lounge bar and Youth Group play to the biggest crowd of the night. The crowd isn’t as responsive as it could be, but most of the punters seem to be enjoying themselves. The opener, Skeleton Jar, taken from the album of the same name stands out along with current single Someone Else’s Dream but as the set continues, the songs blend into each other and people start murmuring about the lead singer’s dancing eyebrows and the bassist’s very-public brawl with Craig Nicholls of his other band, The Vines.

All in all, nobody would have left Sweet ‘n’ Low feeling disappointed or ripped off, as standards tonight reflect the quality of the the bill. Youth Group no doubt won a few new fans, but they are far from the clear standouts they’d like to be.