Backing up two nights in a row is never an easy task, particularly after an intense week. But hell, you’re only young and stupid once, aren’t you?

Kicking off the night were West Australians Snowman, who were the support band for Interpol on their recent tour. Playing an energetic brand of avant-garde rock music, the band has an exuberance led by singer and guitarist Andy. By the third song he’d worked himself into a lather, screaming thrashing his guitar and bouncing around the stage like a child who’d had too much red cordial. Guitarist Joe contributed screams and a great guitar sound, whilst ubercool bass player Olga kept the rhythms tight. Over the course of the set the band brought out a number of interesting instruments including a violin, which Andy played conventionally and like a guitar, teasing feedback from it; a trumpet, Joe’s other instrument and a saxophone which Olga played. Methinks that these guys might actually be classically trained. Snowman are a band that you should definitely keep an eye out for.

Following Snowman were The Mint Chicks. For some reason they didn’t do a great deal for me. They had an interesting look, modeled on Devo, but for much of their set they seemed like just another three chord rock band. Towards the end of their set they started playing music that was more appealing, but really didn’t have a great deal of appeal.

Between The Mint Chicks and Regurgitator the football lured me to the bar; oddly enough we were able to see the final score before the opening chords of Regurgitator’s set were played. By this stage the crowd had filled out, with punters in every nook and cranny trying to get an unobstructed view of the stage.

The set this evening spanned Regurgitator’s career, from Tu Plang to Mish Mash. The highlights of the set really were the older songs; including ! (The song formerly known as), Kong Foo Sing, the encore performance of Blubber Boy and Everyday Formula. Whilst at times the band looked like they were having a great deal of fun, there were also times when it all seemed a bit too by the numbers, the performance of Black Bugs in particular.

I’m having real trouble deciding whether this was a good show or not, as I had a good time, but I have these nagging doubts, because I’ve seen them do so much better in the past. So the final word is yes the show was fun, but the band today aren’t a patch on Regurgitator circa 1997.