Live Review: Caligula’s Horse, I Built The Sky, Branch Arterial

It bespeaks of the excellence of tonight's line-up when a band like Branch Arterial opens proceedings at 8.30pm. This band is a progressive powerhouse, more than at home headlining their own shows on the back of their stunning debut album Beyond The Border from earlier this year, and their 30-minute set whizzes by in a flurry of pounding rhythms, electrifying guitar work, the soaring, harmonising and intertwining vocal lines of Nigel Jackson and Jason Worthy and the scintillating percussive dynamism of drummer Adam Zaffarese. Their songs are ultra-memorable, as well as being technically precise, and display a riveting sense of dynamics that emanates from a titanic rhythm section and bottom end.

Melbourne guitar-playing wunderkind Rohan Stevenson is the brainchild behind the progressive, instrumental-rock three-piece I Built The Sky. He proudly announces that tonight they play their "biggest ever show", which is highly appropriate as the sound, style and presence of his band belong in much bigger rooms. In fact, all three bands on tonight's bill do.

Stevenson's dazzling compositions come at you with the momentum of a freight train on a downward gradient, with the rhythm section locking in tighter than a highly wound snare drum, allowing his blistering fretwork to dance crazily-but-precisely and tastefully over the top. His playing exudes technique and facility, but also a sense of fun. I Built The Sky's set this night is just a rollicking good time and the crowd is now ready, in body and mind, for their magnificent headliners.

Brisbane's Caligula's Horse are now a true headlining force to be reckoned with, absolutely capable of holding a large audience's attention for 90-odd minutes. Opening with a couple of tunes from their brand new album In Contact, they own the stage with a combination of experience and confidence that comes from being the wily veterans they now are (frontman Jim Grey even admits they are "too old" for triple j) and the still-youthful enthusiasm that flows out of them.

Grey is in fine fettle, most importantly in his highly skilled vocal gymnastics but also in his dry-witted, between-song banter and the band lock in beautifully behind him, playing with equal parts precision and passion. Especially lead guitarist and co-founding member Sam Vallen, whose blistering and emotive playing is highly underrated on the Aussie scene.

The setlist is a sweeping vista of their burgeoning catalogue, with one small gripe attached to it: the 15-and-a-half-minute opus Graves is nowhere to be heard. A little unexpected, but it's a minor complaint when their material is just wall-to-wall strength: Rust, Firelight, Dark Hair Down, The City Has No Empathy (Your Sentimental Lie) and Grey's passion-filled, spoken-word piece Inertia And The Weapon Of The Wall - all superb.

This night is a celebration of Caligula's Horse's new album, Australian progressive music itself and the throng walk away from Max Watt's engorged to the nines on the magnificence of this scene.