Opening the night to a slowly filling room of punters, Young Maverick worked through an impressive set of indie rock songs. The four-piece retain the 2 x guitar, 1 x bass, 1 x drums formula of most other rock bands Melbourne have spat out recently, but manage to effortlessly stand out from the rest with some masterful use of three-way harmonies. The highlight of their set came in the form of the song Streak, blending the energy and raw sound of Black Lips with the kind of vocal melody usually heard from the likes of Morrissey.

A Broker’s Night Sleep; an extremely hard to digest name had me worried that the music was going to be similar, but within minutes the band was in full swing with the exceptionally tight rhythm section laying a musical base for singer Phoebe to show the full range of her vocal talent. The style of the songs changed frequently and her vocals followed suit, from breathy whispers through to full force, note-perfect choruses. The guitarist too gave us all a free lesson in genre hopping, easily blending styles before hitting his peak with the RATM influenced break of Surface Tension. Unfortunately, a poorly mic’d bongo setup ruined the solid backbeat to one song, but the band had won the crowd over, with the free EPs distributing quickly afterwards.

After a short setup, Quint were onstage and ready to play, the crowd moving in close in anticipation. Opening with their slow builder "Conscription", the band put together their sound piece by piece, instrument by instrument, before coming to a jolting holt as the song reached its end. The set from then on was almost a mix of two different bands, dictated by whether or not singer Keith was holding a guitar or not. On one hand, they would use the extra guitar to pronounce melodic guitar lines and a fuller sound, on the other, a single Telecaster would cut through with disjointed rhythms as Keith’s unbound hands allowed the band to morph into a much more potent garage punk sound. It was in the latter form that the band really shined, songs like "Delusion" and "Liar" harking back to classic 1970’s Australian rock. The set was ended with excited fans joining in for the final chorus, and if these guys had an EP available, I’m sure they would be back at the CD presser now, getting new ones made up. A very impressive show.