Live Review: The Cribs, The Ninjas, Filthy Jackal

There are about six punters in the room as openers Filthy Jackal take the stage. Not even an extensive Google search will reveal just who the fuck they are, but if you throw your estranged Dad and three of your least favourite high school teachers on stage, give them guitars, you might begin to grasp what we're dealing with here. What you won't grasp is just how rotten they are – points and all are perhaps deserved for even getting up on stage, but these cats simply should've remained in the garage. Also, points for covering a great Tom Waits tune (Big In Japan) but as a disgruntled punter's tweet read: “Unless you are an extremely good band, do not try and cover Tom Waits.”

Brisbane garage rockers The Ninjas are up next and sound like a million bucks after the last lot. Seemingly brand new, they deliver their canon of quality tunes with serious concentration and occasional glimpses of a great rock'n'roll swagger. Their tunes are pretty straight-up and when hitting their stride – as they do with radio-single Yeah Yeah, and another called Kill 'Em All – they do reveal true brilliance. The musicianship is sharp, the delivery falls somewhere between the formative stages of the 'Stones and The Libertines and hopefully it will reach what massive potential the five-piece hint at soon.

“I hear Limp Bizkit is in town tonight,” guitarist Ryan Jarman snickers as The Cribs leap onto stage. “So you had a choice of washed-up rockers tonight and you chose us.” Delivering a set that doesn't resemble anything close to washed-up, the three Jarman brothers with an extra guitarist hiding in the shadows plough through a no-holds-barred greatest hits set that effortlessly reaches beyond the anthemic heights of the recordings. Case in point is the recent single, Come On, Be A No-One, which appears early in the set and, at just over 12 months old, already sounds like a classic. It's actually the setlist that steals the show tonight – Cheat On Me, We Share The Same Skies, newbie Leather Jacket Love Song, I'm A Realist and, of course, Men's Needs – they're all here and delivered with the relevance of a band on their debut album.