It was the summer of 2003 and a wide eyed, naïve goth kid purchased two EPs from the local Compact Disc merchant-  Cog’s Just Visiting Part 2 and MM9’s Selftitled 2003 EP. It was a simpler, more innocent time back then, with both bands seeming poised to conquer the Australian alternative rock scene. Fast forward to 2010 and the goth kid has grown into none other than this humble reviewer, and while Cog have indeed made the alt rock scene their bitch, MM9 fans still seem to be scratching their heads wondering when the hell the band will finally get their big break.

Fresh off their national tour with Karnivool, MM9 wasted no time in making the trek again this time as headliners in support of their long awaited debut album The Air Between. Tonight’s show at the Gaelic proved that MM9 don’t need to rely on more established acts to draw in the punters.

The one redeeming feature of openers Chemical Transport was their age. Looking like they were barely out of highschool, they can be forgiven their generic brand of pop-rock in the vein of Snow Patrol or Kisschasy. If they’re thirty and still writing songs like this they might have a bit of a problem, but for now the result was tolerable. At least they jumped around the stage with plenty of energy and got a few of the younger girls in the crowd bopping along.

With the amount of technical difficulties, it’s amazing that The Dead Love got through the set at all. No matter what came their way; broken strings, guitars dropping out and having to be replaced, replacement guitars dropping, the band persevered and luckily sounded nowhere near as emo as the name might suggest. Instead they delivered slabs of raw, well constructed indie rock. Once they finally get their equipment working properly, they might just be a band to watch.

As MM9 took the stage it was instantly clear who everyone was here to see. Sounding like the bastard child of The Presets and MSI, the crowd was a bit unsure whether to mosh or rave, but it didn’t seem to matter. The majority of the set consisted of the material from The Air Between, but luckily crowd favourites like “Disappear From View” off their Prosthetic BLVD EP were not left out. If I had any criticism at all it would be that singer Daniel Sutherland sounded a lot more nasal that he usually does on the recordings. However his sheer charisma and the impressive manner in which he controlled the electronics without seemingly any impedance to his performance more than made up for this tiny flaw. They mayhem tonight was caught on camera, which hopefully signals the release of a live DVD in the near future.

Judging by tonight’s performance it’s still a bit too early to make the call whether MM9 will really become the next big thing in aussie alternative rock. It is clear however that they do have a loyal fanbase and would have no doubt converted a few newcomers tonight, which is always a good start.