Live Review: Grinspoon, The Snowdroppers, Dave Larkin Darwin Theory

Props to the lads of Dave Larkin Darwin Theory, who managed to maintain a hyped and infectious energy throughout their entire trashy set, despite a sparse and plainly uninterested crowd.

The Snowdroppers shook down the theatre with their eclectic mix of psychobilly, thrash rock. Frontman Johnny Wishbone had the crowd eating out of his hand; his bluesy drawl with an Australiana twang soared across the steadily growing audience, who were now feeding off Wishbone's energy.

In a fit of red-blue splashes of light, Grinspoon entered the stage. Phil Jamieson – in all his suited glory – was every inch the charismatic frontman, all scrappy, dishevelled sex appeal. With arms outstretched like some crucified rock star Jesus, Jamieson pontificated and gesticulated across and around the stage, the singer even getting friendly with a bouncer, rubbing his bald head and resting his atop. Pat Davern, meanwhile, played the role of guitar rock god to an angry tee, the yin to Jamieson's yang, smiling and gaffing his way across from one side of the crowd to another.

The set saw the Grinners take the audience on a trip back down memory lane, smashing out a swag of their earlier stuff from 1998's Guide To Better Living and 2000's Easy. A low hush swept over the crowd as those hypnotic opening bars of Chemical Heart played out across the darkness, Jamieson's voice a perfect mixture of pain and gruff.

Lost Control buzzed into the darkness, with Jamieson as his thrash rocking best. And although no real new stuff got sampled save for a few tastes from the band's last release, 2012's Black Rabbits, the crowd hardly seemed to mind. A brief return for an encore saw the boys wrap up the night in a neat little – albeit beer-stained and sweat-soaked – package.