Mike Rosenberg, the Brighton-born troubadour better known by the name Passenger, kicked off the evening’s entertainment at the East Brunswick Club. Though Passenger used to be a band, on Saturday night Rosenberg’s only company on stage was his acoustic guitar. He wielded it well, delicately plucking and strumming his way through some admittedly “depressing” songs to begin the set; his trembling vocal style (think somewhere in the vicinity of Damien Rice) doing wonders to infuse the songs with emotion. It would be remiss of me, however, not to mention that not all of Rosenberg’s songs were aimed at the broken-hearted. Displaying his chameleon-like versatility, he followed up with a humorous song about raining men (no, not THAT song) that contained the clever line “Who thought it’d be a good idea / To have fat men falling through the atmosphere?” Kudos.

The crowd remained seated for the majority of Rosenberg’s performance; our polite attention a stark contrast to the reception the singer received at the previous night’s show in Geelong. “That was one of the low points of the tour and of my life,” he quipped, a sentiment which was later reiterated by the headliners. It seemed everyone was glad to be back in civilisation.

As a reward for the early-comers, Rosenberg proceeded to invite his friends from Boy & Bear first onto the stage and then the floor, as the crowd circled round and made room for the group to perform a lovely unplugged rendition of “Shape of Love,” one of a collection of collaborations with well known Australian artists on Passenger’s latest album Flight of the Crow. It just goes to show that getting to a gig early can sometimes pay off, with the still meagre crowd erupting into a loud roar following the song, clearly ecstatic at the prospect of getting a taste of Boy & Bear’s heavenly harmonies so early in the evening. The set was then concluded with a cover of Paul Simon’s “Sound of Silence,” a request and some charming crowd participation in the form of a sing-along.

Next up were Perth four-piece The Chemist, who shocked the crowd out of their folk-induced daze with some confronting and unhinged rock. The group, who have been receiving attention on triple j as of late, exuded a quiet confidence as they juxtaposed twinkling flourishes of keys with erratic, disjointed guitar solos. At times it felt chaotic, but the group’s tight on-stage chemistry (apologies) ensured that things didn’t get too out of hand.

One of the highlight’s of the group’s set was watching bassist Hamish Rahn pull some rather amusing faces in order to hit the high-pitched backing vocal notes of single “Lullaby #1 (Mercy).” In return, some audience members displayed orgasm faces of their own as the band finished off their set with a captivating fuzzy jam, “End of July,” which climaxed in a heap of looped vocals. After what seemed like an eternity staring at the black curtain now obscuring the stage, everything was finally ready for the return of the jovial lads of Boy & Bear. The Sydney folksters kicked off their set with “The Message” under a thick haze of smoke and the dull glow of fairy lights.

Right from the very start it was obvious where the group’s main strength lies – in their voices. Frontman Dave Hosking led the quintet in serenading the audience with song after song packed to the brim with sweet harmonies. Every band member, regardless of their instrument, was positioned in front of a microphone and these were used to glorious effect. The only danger of giving everyone a mic (at least for Hosking) was that it provided each member with the opportunity to chime in at regular intervals with their two cents’ worth. For the crowd, however, watching the group engage in light-hearted banter just made the group all the more charming (and now we know, for unexplained reasons, that Hosking’s nickname is ‘Bone.’ Make of that what you will!).

The band played all the material from their excellent debut EP With Emperor Antarctica, but as Hosking explained, stating the obvious, “five songs isn’t really enough for a full gig.” We were treated to a taste of the new material the band has been busy working on; one song had a decidedly country swagger about it, the rest building on the pleasant acoustic folk the group is renowned for.

One of the evening’s best moments occurred when The Chemist boys and Passenger returned to the stage to lend their pipes to a beautiful cover of Boy & Bear peer Bon Iver’s song “Flume.” The five extra voices washed over the crowd in a wave of impassioned harmonies, making for some truly goosebump-inducing aural bliss. Boy & Bear have come a long way in a relatively short space of time, a fact that the band acknowledged and remained humble about throughout the night. They looked excited and pleased to be on-stage doing what they love – a feeling which proved contagious, reflecting in the enthusiastic response of their adoring fans.