Live Review: Astronautalis, Joelistics, Kyaarn, Fuze

Local MC Fuze is serenading the small group of early arrivals with his relaxed-but-technical hip hop tracks. He has a bit of a cruisy, Seth Sentry-ish vibe about him, although he also loves to dive into a spot of triple-time rhyming now and then. His track Attraction is a clear standout and proves he's got the songwriting chops to match his vocal delivery. The only downside of his set is that he performs to a backing tape instead of having a live DJ and this means he's stuck counting the beats between tracks, which robs him of the chance to build a stronger rapport with the audience.

Kyaarn, an alternative rock group, follow. They seem an odd choice for this line-up. Granted, the headline act has a tendency to cross genres with alarming frequency, but Kyaarn's pub-rock-meets-'90s-indie sound doesn't fit with the rest of the bill.

The room fills up a bit when Joelistics takes the stage. After nearly three years playing sets built around his 2011 solo album Voyager, the talented MC is starting rework his act. As well as crowd favourites such as Head Right and The People, he throws in a few TZU classics and, excitingly, some offerings from his upcoming album. It doesn't all quite go to plan with the new material (he forgets a lyric partway through, but makes it up with an unaccompanied rendition once the song is finished). But the crowd are wild for him regardless and he gets an enthusiastic send-off after closing with Days.

Not long after, Astronautalis jumps on the stage and almost literally blows the roof off. This guy is something else: he looks like Modern Family's Jesse Tyler Ferguson, channels the crazed energy of Sage Francis and blends rap, emo and punk with carefree abandon (in a cool, not a Linkin Park, way). He tears through fantastic, complex tracks such as The River, The Woods and This Is Our Science, leaping all over the stage, spitting rapid-fire raps and lending his impressive pipes to the near-operatic hooks. There's a little bit of Modest Mouse in the way he can oscillate between calmness and frenetic intensity from one sentence to the next. It is, quite simply, a brilliant, heart-pounding, room-bouncing set. Partway through he announces that he wants to leave the room “crazy and sweaty”, and he definitely achieves this goal.