Welcome to 2010! The slate is clean for us live music lovers and it’s time to get right back into the spirit, just days into the new decade. Tonight’s case brings us to the multi-layered Civic Hotel, a unique venue with a glint of inner-city cool to it. Unfortunately, it was also a little confusing for first-time visitors (not mentioning any names, but they’re typing this sentence), which resulted in missing most of opener Cabaret Collado’s set. The wrong opening time being promoted on the posters also was not helping.

Once the lair was found, no other major problems surfaced – Slopfrenzy, a showcase of some of Popfrenzy Records’ finest national and international acts was underway. Collado gave the handful of early arrivers a taste of his avant-garde take on the singer/songwriter format. Despite a few tech difficulties, Callado persevered with a wave of spaced-out background noise generated by his Mac and some sparsely-arranged guitar ringing out over the top. It was a slightly dragging, but nevertheless intriguing, beginning to the evening.

It wasn’t until a young Melbourne trio by the name of Otouto (say it like “auto ooto”) took to the stage that ears really began pricking up to what was going on. One of the early highlights of the show, the two-thirds-female group left a very strong impression on their audience by means of their brief yet charming performance. Otouto based their meek, practically irresistible sound around unique percussion added on to drummer Kishore Ryan’s kit. Guitar styles switched between regular picking and bass fingers, with dual harmonies that were to die for. Songs like opener 'Spot' and new single 'Sushi' were a delight to listen to; just a couple of highlights from a band that can only move to greater strengths as their musical careers progress.

Returning briefly to solo territory was the quirky and lovely-sounding Via Tania. Her baritone ukulele and a sporadically used laptop were her only company, as the former Sydney resident (now a Chicago native) took us through a variety of tracks from her debut album. As she explained during some of her cute banter, Tania is normally a performer as a part of a band. This, in part, explained why some of the tracks involving the laptop proved to be somewhat uncomfortable at times - including starting the wrong backing track and fumbling the chords which left her lost halfway through a song. Not to be let down by a few minor faults, the uke-strumming lady delivered a quaint set which invariably received generous applause by the increasingly-packed gathering.

Stupid name, good band. If pressed, that’s how you’d describe Sydney quartet Tennis in four words – but we’re allowed to use more than that here at The AU Review, so let’s do that. With a big crowd taking up the floor for the first time that night, the five twenty-somethings gave us all something to dance to. Audible influences ranged from as early as Talking Heads and recent as Vampire Weekend – right down to the ironically-hip clothing. Don’t think this was a fashion parade, however – Tennis delivered a series of punchy, upbeat numbers that were accentuated by the clean, twangy guitar and the big-sounding percussion (it’s practically impossible to not enjoy a song that prominently features bongo drums). Final verdict? Game and set. Match will have to wait to see how the rest of 2010 goes for them.

Tennis gave us great songs with even greater potential. This potential carried on into the set of four-piece Shady Lane, with the only difference being this band only carried with them a slew of ‘good’ songs. Their tight-knit style of indie pop certainly had its moments, but what was most interesting was that its twee-like, spring-in-step attitude was not replicated by the stage presence of everyone onstage aside from frontman Jordy Lane, who all looked as if they were waiting around to get a beer and get paid (in whichever order). Given, Shady Lane were pleasant enough, bringing a smile to quite a few members of the audience. Even still, if they’re really keen in getting the most out of what they do, they should take the advice of the band whose song they are named after, Pavement: brighten the corners.

Canvas Kites were turned up loud and dressed to kill, putting on a surprisingly fun show for those of us that were somewhat lulled by Shady. Their eighties-influenced pop/rock made closer inroads to meat and potatoes rather than cheese, rolling through songs with big hooks, shimmying guitar and a down-pat rhythm section. Most everyone was up for a dance, so it was good to have these fine young men throwing some feet-shuffling curveballs that were pure pop at heart, yet maintaining a sting in the tail by any means necessary. Top stuff.

To say that Mica Levi’s arrival was hotly anticipated was an understatement. Packed right to the very front of the stage, Micachu and the Shapes had a wave of momentum without even sounding a note. All it took was a sharp rendition of Curly Teeth to set things off and we were set from there for a well put-together and genuinely interesting set of tracks mostly lifted from their heavily-hyped debut, Jewellery. Huge buildups in tracks like Wrong and single Golden Phone were spectacular to watch, as was the wonderful set up of bits-and-pieces around keyboardist Raisa Khan and drummer Marc Pell – cowbells, cymbals, scratch pads and empty bottles just some of them. Levi occasionally appeared a little despondent on stage – jetlag setting in, no doubt – but they were still easily able to stand out and hold the never-waning attention of a full room. That’s an impressive feat, no matter where you’re from.

Not many people knew what to expect next. A tiny woman in bike shorts and a rash shirt was soundchecking her microphone by squawking and meowing with varying degrees of reverb and sound-warping as the rest of her band set up a ring of pedals, guitars, trigger pads, samplers, drums and mics. Once the scattered pieces of the puzzle came together, however, the work of art that was Ponytail emerged. The quartet hopped, bounced and leapt their way through music that was adventurous, engaging and occasionally downright insane. Remember be your own PET? Well, think them and multiply the crazy, violent energy by about fifteen hundred times over. Ponytail were ready to punch on until there was blood, getting next to everyone around in a raucous, dancing mood. Tracks like Late For School and Celebrate The Body Electric were standouts, but there wasn’t a single second of mediocrity to be found in Ponytail’s set. Easily the night’s best performance.

Perhaps it was because of this that New York fembot duo Telepathe fell a little flat. The music itself was pretty nice – the girls have a catchy, intricate take on the darkwave subgenre on their David Sitek-produced Dancemother LP; not to mention a few strongly dedicated fans in the area tonight (including one who rushed up to the girls during soundcheck to get their autographs). The atmosphere the twosome created, however, was isolated, cold and decidedly unwelcoming. Not even when Melissa Livaudais worked her way through the crowd, singing single So Fine, did we feel any closer to these musicians. Some good tunes here and there, but Telepathe were noticeably lacking.

Finishing with Sydney locals Seekae was a strange move on behalf of the organizers, as well as an arguably ineffective one (the crowd was noticeably dwindling). Let’s not take anything away from the boys themselves – as they proved at Parklife back in October, they are easily one of Sydney’s more interesting performers. Their glitchy, poly-rhythmic and predominantly-instrumental tracks took in elements of hip-hop, electronica and jazz, which ultimately establishes a peerless, extravagant style of music that, while difficult to get into on first listen, is very rewarding once you’re ‘in the zone’, per se.

Perhaps the greatest thing about Slopfrenzy was the fact that there was not one terrible – or even bad – set of the night. The bands were hanging out, doing their own soundchecks, chatting with fans…forget any kind of elitist cool, Slopfrenzy mostly felt like a tiny community of former-strangers united by passion for music and fun performances. What else is there to say? 2010 is going to absolutely rule if this keeps up.