With their brazenly confident frontman who would give 28 Days’ Jay Dune a run for his money, punk outfit Anywhere But Here went down well with the younger members of the Sydney audience. Heavily reminiscent of the 28 Days/One Dollar Short brand of punk, Anywhere But Here don’t stray far from the blueprint but their energy and penchant for audience interaction will probably see them do well in the coming years.

By it’s very nature punk is a notoriously narrow genre, beset by it’s own overworked formula and limitations. 28 Days may not have done much to augment the genre, but their unabated live performances are undeniably entertaining despite the often-vacuous nature of their tunes. Their trademark brevity and momentum building style always gown down well particularly in your larger, festival type environment where it’s easier to forgive them for being a little one-dimensional.

One of New Zealand’s finest, Betchadupa are an incredible live band infallibly tight and beguiling, to which their opening instrumental at tonight’s gig can attest to-relentless drums and perfectly synchronised guitars that trail off into electrifying solos in just the right spots. Their latest single Move Over encapsulates what they do best; hook laden pop chorus’ surrounded by splicing riffs and veritable harmonies. While Betchadupa haven’t quite captured their live appeal on record as yet, if Move Over is anything to go by, their second forthcoming album may prove otherwise.

Although Magic Dirt have irrefutably eschewed the Sonic Youth fuzz of their past, their live shows are just as powerful as ever. Feedback isn’t as recurrent as it once was but Adalita’s fingers still blur across the fret board and Raul still successfully plays a portion of the show with his guitar on his head. It’s hard to begrudge Magic Dirt’s turn to pop when they do it so well-Watch Out Boys and Plastic Loveless Letter are as catchy as they come whilst the frenzied guitar jabs of Anita’s Miracle Suntan Lotion prove they still have an affinity for undulating riffs.

The always exultant Jebediah played tonight’s set as if they’d never went away. Grins plastered across all of their faces throughout as Kevin Mitchell’s voice races to keep up with the music. Churning through the old favourites of Teflon and lament Harpoon, Jebediah betray their secret to success; unquestionably Mitchell’s ability to construct catchy, impeccably crafted pop tunes backed by ferocious drumming and whiny, visceral vocals. The newer material previewed during their set didn’t diverge far from their old formula ensuring the Jeb’s won’t see a decline in their fanbase with their forthcoming record.

Whether you appreciate the Machine Gun Fellatio live performance or not is really a question of whether you take their image and onstage antics to be an indulgence that enhances their music or performed vicariously; namely, in place of decent tunes. Most of their music is based upon facetious, throwaway concepts, but they are executed with deft and sincerity. They may not be thought provoking or musically inspiring but they are entertaining which, for many is enough.