After rewarding the Meredith crowd with one of the highlight shows of the festival, the much hyped Seattle band Band Of Horses hit Melbourne for what turned out to be a pretty strange and quite unnerving performance. In true rock style, band leader Ben Bridwell appeared to be in an inebriated state and his mates weren’t shaping up that much better.

As I took up my position, up towards the back of the room, Bridwell and co kicked off the night’s proceedings with The Funeral, The First Song and Wicked Gil from the band’s debut album, Everything All The Time. Bridwell’s vocals were unusually higher and a little more weirdly irritating than usual. In true laconic fashion, Bridwell casually explained to the packed premises, “Well we’re gonna play a couple of tunes and then maybe go off stage for a cigarette, then we may come back, we’re not gonna play any covers…”

Band of Horses later broke up the set with some slower, re-interpreted versions of some of their songs, including a much lazier bend on Part One, Our Swords and Monsters before breaking out of the gates with a rocking take on their smash hit (one of their better, punchier numbers) The Great Salt Lake, which had the joint jumping as one.

With Bridwell staying true to his earlier call of introducing an intermission to the show, Band Of Horses took a ten minute break before Bridwell came back out alone and cautiously reworked some new tunes he had recently penned on his lap steel. “These songs are gonna be so bad – I just know!” But they weren’t, and seemed to add a varied touch to the overall performance, much to the chagrin of a young female party punter in the audience who, after one of the solo numbers, yelled “Bring back the band!” Bridwell merely poked his head up from behind his trucker’s cap and smirked before he continued on for one more tune which had a kind of Dylan-esque snarl to it.

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you bitch!” announced Bridwell, tongue in cheek (in response to the young lady’s earlier request) as Band Of Horses returned to the fold and belt out another couple, including the Kings of Leon inspired Weed Party and the harmony drenched St. Augustine, before the reverb heavy set arrived at an impressive and rewarding close.