As first opener Leon Thomas see-sawed between beige and vitality, he never quite landed anywhere. A man and his guitar, he had the oft-difficult spot as first support, playing to a large room scattered with few punters and seated early birds, so one can always sympathize, but Thomas’ heartfelt, electric verse didn’t do much to sway me.

I bet Cal Young is fun to party with. The black-clad, lankier half of Hobart duo Scientists of Modern Music just gets so heavily into it that you can’t help but be sucked in. I dare say that even the ever-stoic Lisa exhibited the classic “into it” signs of head-nodding and foot-tapping. Electronic music is hard to critique, as it is often heavily layered and intricate; it also taps into our very primal natures: the thudding, heavy beats almost impossible to resist reacting to.

Robot voices, reminding me of that “Vengaboys are back in town” bit from “Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”, and banal lyrics like, “I wanna do it with you” and “Because if I die, I’ll be living in the clouds without you” would normally turn me away, but SOMM are so infectiously exuberant and in touch with their audience; there were times when Young gets down into the crowd, creating a semi-mosh pit around himself, made me fear for his life, but proved that SOMM are just a couple of bros smashing out some tunes and having fun with it. This, I like.

“Girl on Top” gets a rousing reception and a fellow in business attire begins exhibiting every white guy dance in the book; ranging from the two-handed upwards point (he opted for the elective knee-jerk which turns the move into something like, 'The Marionette') to simply jumping on the spot in a circle. He is loving life.

Oh, gosh. Oh me, oh my. The Adults were in a tricky situation. It becomes clear throughout the night that many faces in the audience were there merely for front-man Jon Toogood, clearly thinking that The Adults’ music would in any way copy that of Shihad’s (Toogood’s other long-running project, for those unaware, although I don’t know how you could be), as is evidenced by a slack-jawed yell emanating from the crowd: “SHI-HAD! SHI-HAD! SHI-HAD!”

The crowd is fairly apathetic. I am not sure why; presumably this is right up their alley, or else why would they be here? Clusters leave before the encore tracks and there is little cheer or gumption from the muttering mass to bring the band back. They do come back, seemingly unfazed by the lacklustre effort on the crowd's part.

On some level, I agree with the iffy throng; I had been wowed by single "Nothing to Lose", with its striding beat towards a climax that never emerges (happily) and Julia Dean’s full-bodied alt.soul voice.

But as The Adults drove their way through their hour-ish set, the music felt more and more…ill-fitting; each member seems inhibited in their abilities, as if their collective desire to keep things low and dark has actually become the rat in their salad (I know it’s not a common simile but it was the first one that came to my mind, oddly. Perhaps I shouldn't have listened to Black Sabbath on the way home.)

Each member is incredibly good at what they do, but the thudding, shadowy tunes they had on show eventually started to bleed together. Perhaps, like many sets, the Adults’ (playing largely from their self-titled debut album) was a slow-burner and required multiple goings-over and a heftier intake… but, first appearances count.

I’m not saying, “Hey, Adults, write catchier songs” here, which may be how some pro-Adults fans are reading this, but I assure you that catchiness is not the answer. Not everything can be solved with a hook and a verse-chorus et al ad nauseam blueprint...all I am saying is that despite a few numbers- the aforementioned “Nothing to Lose” and Toogood and Julia duet-ing on the beautiful “Anniversary Day”- the set largely washed over me...which bummed me out, because each member seemed to be greater than the sum of its parts.