You sometimes wonder why British bands bother coming to Australia. They sit on a plane for the best part of a day and end up playing to venues full of sweaty British backpackers. Not that this is a bad thing at all. At tonight’s Hard-Fi show at Metropolis Fremantle, it’s the barmy army that brings things to life.

Rewind an hour or so and you’ll see a pretty dispersed crowd trying to understand how The Simian Line got tonight’s support slot. They’re young and show promise but, despite having one of the best rhythm sections in Perth at the moment, sound like Creed every time vocalist Blair Dwyer opens his mouth. One song starts off sounding a bit like Muse. And ends up sounding like Creed. Another one sounds a bit like Pearl Jam. And ends up sounding like Creed. Then there’s the one with the extended guitar intro that’s reminiscent of Pink Floyd… that ends up sounding like Creed. Then there’s the cover of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song at the end of the set. That’s right, they even manage to turn Led Zeppelin into Christian rock.

With The Simian Line safely off the stage, the crowd finally comes to life as the house lights fade to The Clash’s Guns of Brixton. Quite fitting, considering London Calling is pretty much year zero for Hard-Fi’s indie-meets-dub-meets-punk sound.

The problem with a band like Hard-Fi — who have reached dizzy heights on the back of just one album — is managing to play headline shows without running out of tricks. No matter how many copies of debut album Stars of CCTV they’ve sold, it’s still only 45 minutes long and that’s nowhere near the hour-and-a-bit they need to win a crowd over.

Tonight’s set is just 13 songs long but, to use a cliché, it’s a good 13. Instead of relying on their radio hits (Tied Up Too Tight, Hard to Beat, Cash Machine and Living for the Weekend) the band make every song on the album just as good.

Opening track Middle Eastern Holiday is the ideal way to kick things off and the fans down at the front love it. Gotta Reason and new song Suburban Knights keep the fans buzzing but fail to penetrate beyond the front few rows. The remedy? A good old-fashioned sing-along. Tied Up Too Tight and Feltham is Singing Out are just about easy enough for the fence-sitters at the bar to join in, while the backpackers at the front sing along with every word, fists in the air.

Though most of the fence-sitters go back to the bar for another drink, the mood around the venue is about 10 times what it was 10 minutes ago. The band drop a couple of new songs (You and Me, Can’t Get Along) and the down-tempo Better Do Better, which the fans embrace with just as much enthusiasm as they did Hard to Beat and Feltham is Singing Out. The new tracks still have the trademark Hard-Fi sound but the hooks are a little less obvious and the slick radio rock has made way for the kind of sound that’s a thousand times better live. This may be the last show of their Stars of CCTV world tour but you get the feeling it’s the start of something as well.

It was inevitable that the band would save all their best tricks for last but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable when it happens. Cash Machine and Hard to Beat raise the roof, while the sweaty Britons raise their pints and punch the air. Vocalist Richard Archer points the microphone out to the crowd at every available opportunity, eager to win the fence-sitters over. His light banter between songs reminds us we’ve got a few hours of the long weekend left and sparks off a series of chants for En-ger-land and various lower-division football teams.

As Archer returns to the stage after a short break for a solo rendition of Move On Now, it’s as though it’s the calm before the storm. As drummer Steve Kemp, guitarist Ross Phillips and bass guitarist Kai Stephens join him, it’s the title track from Stars of CCTV that scores the winning goal. The “louder than Sydney… louder than Melbourne…” sing-along is normally a tacky move, but a quick joke about the Sydney Swans makes everybody want to beat them all over again. At 11.15 the band cap the night off with Living for the Weekend and, with the working week breathing down our necks, it’s about as good as it can get.