Tonight, the Victorian triumvirate hard rock-a-thon hit town. The Devil Rock Four delivered torrid blasts of tempestuous power chords, playing a harsh set with energetic presence to boot. Yet, the disappointment lay in the fact they plateaued half way through and that’s where they stayed for the entire set. However, vocals were very strong, yet indecipherable, from both rhythm guitarists, the drumming was prolific, in every sense of the word, and my mate thought the guitarist’s red headband worked a treat reminding us both of the lead singer from Warrant. They commanded the stage well for those who bothered to turn up to see the first support, they just seemed afraid of straying too far from their 100 mph musical security blanket.

It’s nice to see The Exploders enthusiasm in playing live for an Australian audience once more. After spending time in the States recording their album, their well-tailored rhythms and melodies impressed a steadily increasing audience. Blasting their way through, puncturing everybody’s senses, the high-rotation Triple J single Stepping Out was just one of the crowd pleasers. All up, there’s great harmonies here, soaring vocals from both guitarists and a roll call of blissful psychedelic garage influences. The crowds gravitation towards this band inspires me to meditate upon consumer psychologist, Adam Ferrier’s remark that rebellion used to be cool until the mass media appropriated it. But these guys buck that trend, maintaining the authenticity of rebellion by pure rock standards.

The break is long, the natives are restless and the joint’s filled to capacity. But those rowdy boys next door your mother told you to keep away from finally step out amid fanfares of cheers and whistles and tonight you know it’s going to be a wall to wall detonation blowout of noise. If what I heard is right about Dallas Crane’s frustrations surrounding music industry bureaucracy, and the release of Factory Girls, their frisky rock show antics manage to exorcise any demons of discontent through their hot-for-rock invocations.

Wasting no time, they shake everybody’s foundations and a little later I question whether the term ‘Mae West rock’ is appropriate but to hell with it – they laid bare a template of bold, brassy, over-confident and sassy hard rock. Larkin’s raspy, guttural howl is in high form and those side-burns will soon be asking for their own dressing-room. Possibly one each. The set is contrasted by the more introspective Under the Moon with its faint atmospherics alongside more edgier tracks like Numb All Over and latest single Curiosity.

Half way through the set, you can see the crowd has relished their immersion in an assertive blast of old style sweaty, slithering Oz rock. Which brings me to their latest clip incidentally. Watching it, I spared a thought about the construction of female sexuality and the band’s admission that it explores “having fun with the deep dark recesses of the human soul”. But one could simply see it as another endless parade of women as wide-eyed ‘hot chicks’ seeking approval through their sexuality as a crucial criteria for music videos. But this isn’t The Sydney Morning Herald and I digress…

There were audience sing-a-longs, an imaginative, epilepsy-inducing light show, large, plastic blow-up balls for the audience to smack around and for the encore, it seemed the apparition of Bon Scott appeared on lead vocals belting out Ladybird and Dirty Hearts. Wreaking rock mayhem all around, they left us to pick up the pieces and with something to talk about. With their exorcism now complete, I realised there had been nothing to save us from them. But who needs saving?

See the photos from the gig here