After only visiting our shores late last year for a string of shows, New Zealand’s beloved Bats have once again soared, with another dynamite performance of romantic pop and drifter song writing.

The night kicked off with The Ghosts, a fittingly support slot, sounding not dissimilar to something like Teenage Fanclub, with hollow-body guitars and amazing bass lines included.

Next up were the peculiar mixture of avant-pop locals found in Richard In Your Mind. I hadn’t actually seen these guys before, but as first impressions go, they ticked just about all the boxes necessary. Lead singer Richard Cartwright sounded like a strained Jad Fair while everything else going around him was simply melodic chaos.

You had strange horror music samples in one song, duel tribal percussion in another and rip-roaring thick guitar riffs in just about every tune. Some songs were better than others, but by the end of their set it was obvious that the band had some memorable songs and amazing song writing and cryptic lyrics. Check “The New Sun” for examples. The room had slowly filled in by the end of Richard In Your Mind’s set and fans weren’t afraid to make their way directly to the front of the stage.

The Bats are a band who should be much bigger than they really are. They've been a bit of a cult favourite, carrying a unique and distinctive pop/folk sound, with their appeal found mainly in the sentimental attachment from the listener. Who can deny the catchiness and clean lead lines of tracks like “Don’t You Rise”, “North by North” and “Like Water”. The Bats have been doing the hard yards for almost 20 years, surprisingly lasting their whole career with the original line-up of 1983 intact. Maybe it’s the non-aggressive and laid-back nature of the Bats which keeps them together. Arriving on stage to a warm welcome by the audience, which see’s lead singer/guitarist Robert Scott donning his trademark hat, the group take off into flight.

I can confirm that The Bats remained airborne and flew over the heads of just about everyone in the audience throughout their satisfying set. Touching on tracks from all of their albums right up to the latest and seventh release “The Guilty Office”, The Bats may have not played all of the classics you wanted them to (particularly from their first record), but it was hard to not stand there, smile and sing along to every other track you already knew.

Showing their dedicated following has no signs of stopping, the crowd called out for requests the entire night and we were lucky enough to get ourselves an encore. Oxford Arts Factory may have been a dimly lit cesspool, but if you closed your eyes just for a minute and absorbed sounds of the bats, you could pretty much be in any tropical paradise that your imagination would take you to.

I knew after watching the crazed, drunken and patriotic New Zealander leap about beside me, swooshing his beer and yelling at his idols – that The Bats were not only iconic of the NZ Flying Nun sound, but pioneers of the summer love songs of past and present. Their music is something that has slowly stretched its way across our Australia and onto the world – drawing more fans and bigger crowds, which is really what they deserve.