Live Review: The Creases, Planet, Las Vagueness

It wasn't hard to see where local five-piece Las Vagueness got their cute (too cute?) name: their sound is woozy and spaced out, coloured by plenty of effected guitar and gentle synths. Even their simplest songs were polished, with an effortlessly listenable balance of guitar, keys and harmonies. Debut single Plug Me In received a cheer of recognition before the band had even started playing it, and the song's rousing chorus and terrific bridge explained why: easily the band's strongest material, you could really feel them warming up during its appearance towards the end of the set.

A glance at Planet's three-guitar composition might have suggested Nashville band Diarrhea Planet had snuck onto the bill, but the bands are plenty different — this Sydney five-piece mix it up with well integrated acoustic guitar, lush '60s bass, and super lively drums. Frontman Matty Took's vocals, somewhere in the Placebo/Oasis register, complement the atmospherics perfectly. The band have an expansive psych sound which they deployed to great effect where it made sense to do so (those three guitars attention-grabbing at first, but almost hypnotic once you got used to them), but their effects never distracted from the hooky songwriting: singles like Undermine and Frosty show off the band's knack for penning some seriously propulsive rock'n'roll! Hard to think of a better support for the headline act.

Speaking of which, hey, The Creases are in town again! Back for the first time this year, the Brisbane band sound tighter, more energetic and focused than ever, but they don't forget to have a good time on stage either. Impact, the single the band are in town to launch (despite it being about two months old now) is an absolute ripper, and even better live — bass, bright keys and guitars weaved in and out, building to a chorus that begged to be sung along to. I Won't Wait, introduced as the first Creases song, took on a somewhat nostalgic tone, but with band members sharing microphones to sing harmonies, the band's playfulness and joy were contagious. The band sprinkled in a couple of new tunes, including their thrashy closer, which saw the effects pedals cranked up, and while each new track hinted at exciting things to come, it was breakout single Static Lines that the punters were humming to themselves on their way to the merch desk.