The first time I landed in Canberra, I found deserted streets cloaked in darkness at nine o’clock on a Wednesday night. “Is it open?” I enquired of the cab driver.

Young & Restless’ amiable guitarist Mark Faulkland insists there is a vibrant live music scene in the capital. But I suspect the bristling energy he and his band mates release when playing is a lingering symptom of life in a city even John Howard refuses to live in.

After forming just eighteen months ago, demand for the five-piece has escalated torrentially, and only bassist Ross Paxman is still to relocate to Melbourne. In an astoundingly rapid rise, Young and Restless have graduated from playing at house parties to being chosen by Triple J Unearthed for a highly-coveted berth at venerable all-Aussie festival, Homebake. Shihad’s Tom Larkin has been recruited to produce an album and even a UK tour is being mooted.

However, despite many favourable reviews, Triple J air-play and the buzz surrounding rock’s latest darlings, the turn-out at Saturday’s gig at the Governor Hindmarsh was disappointingly thin on the floor – especially for an all-ages gig with five bands on the bill. Even the tables and chairs were left out, but those in attendance were definitely there for Young and Restless. Following blistering sets from Realist Few, Soft White Machine, Saving Savanah, and Daysworth Fighting, the headliners wasted no time in taking the stage, and the room converged before them as a bouncing mass of expectation.

We were immediately bombarded with several concentrated blasts of energy intense enough to make residents of Chernobyl nervous. It’s an enthrallingly dynamic sound that explodes from this band; the heavy rock riffs cut with grabbing hooks make for high-voltage rock and roll that doesn’t sacrifice its groove. It’s impossible not to move to it – as demonstrated the band. They hurl themselves about like extras in a Jackie Chan film, seemingly oblivious of each other, but somehow manage not to collide in a crunching wreck.

Guitarist Ash St Ives and bassist Ross Paxman spin and contort like Flea trying to dislodge his brain. Sultry singer and certified wild thing, Karina Utomo, punctuates furiously-delivered lyrics with banshee-like wailing and screaming. (If you didn’t know better, you might think she’d just grabbed a white-hot mic.) And drummer Nugie Utomo looks almost frustrated for being confined to his kit.

The introduction of Satan – the track entered for Triple J’s Unearthed – received cheers from the audience, and it sounded even better than the excellent recording. But therein lies a challenge for Young and Restless: if this ride they’re on is to culminate in a UK tour, extended sets must demonstrate more variety in their sound, and, most importantly, their album must capture the searing vivacity of their live shows.

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