A great party seems to follow the Black Lips around like a bad smell, and so in support of their Laneway appearance, they brought their havoc to the Corner Hotel for a night.

The Twerps are a band that always play around town, but I forever seem to miss them so I was happy to finally catch them play, helping warm up the already boiling bandroom. Their surfy, rough pop songs were engaging and though a little rustic, immediately appealing. One song that stuck out was ‘To Die For’, a love song of sort with weird lyrics and frontman Martin Frawley’s nonchalant, lamenting vocal delivery adding to the quirky appeal. Joining the band on stage for a couple of tunes was Dion Nania from Panel of Judges (a band Frawley also plays guitar in), contributing some poppy keyboard melodies. Their clattering guitar music would have fit the soundtrack of some 1970’s surf flick perfectly!

Then of course it was the Atlantic, Georgian boys I had been waiting for, The Black Lips. As soon as they lumbered onto the stage, the bulk of the crowd who had positioned themselves right at the front of the stage began jumping around like crazy, everyone excited to see what the quartet would get up to. I hadn’t seen an audience get so keyed up and messy in long time, people appeared to be floating around the room and jumping on stage as the Black Lips rattled through a distorted set of their ‘flower punk’ tunes. Bassist Jared Swilley rolls around the stage on his feet though always maintaining a stern appearance, smiling every so often as an audience member catches his attention, while to his left bounces Ian Saint Pé always performing with a sly smirk on his face, visible are his trademark silver ‘grills’. On Jared’s right is the firecracker known as Cole Alexander, bounding off the monitors or standing on Joe Bradley’s drum kit, who himself violent throws his head from side to side, keeping a rough beat with his whole body as well as trying to sing.

While it was great to hear two of my favourites, ‘Drugs’ and ‘Dirty Hands’ live, it was ‘Oh Katrina’ that really stood out for me, weirdly sending the already unhinged audience even more so. Also amongst their set was ‘Short Fuse’, ‘Stranger’, ‘Buried Alive’ and of course the trouble-making anthem of ‘Bad Kids’. After leaving the stage for a quick breather, they came back for an encore including ‘I’ll Be with You’ and the closer of the night, a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, Jared planting himself in the crowd, braving the raucous that he and his band mates created themselves.

Though you can make a lot of assumptions about what could go down at a Black Lips soiree, you never really know till you get there. There was a stealth vomit from Mr Alexander, a bit of a pash between two members and a rather over-zealous punter decided to dack himself on stage before jumping back into the crowd. Sounds pretty standard, but chaotic and frenzied none-the-less.