Live Review: The Mountain Goats, Oh Pep!

Having accompanied The Mountain Goats around the United States, you wouldn't expect Melburnian acoustic duo Oh Pep! to be in any way fazed by a sold-out Badlands crowd. Blanching at first, they soon found their rhythm as their personable, down-to-earth charm and Olivia Hally's sly little vocal inflections, which added genuine character to their songs, won over an increasingly appreciative crowd.

The expansion of the once notoriously lo-fi The Mountain Goats' sound was laid bare upon the stage before they even set foot on it. Back in 2006, when John Darnielle broke a string during their first song at Fly By Night, he literally disabled half the group's instruments in one strum. Tonight there were saxophones, drums and two (yes, two) keyboards.

The Mountain Goats are a versatile four-piece nowadays, but Darnielle remains the focus. Although he's by no means a bronzed rock Adonis, there are few frontmen as engaging as Darnielle, who plays with such freedom and appears so alive. His freewheeling storytelling remains second to none, there are scores of budding songwriters who would kill for a songbook that is as thick as his and so packed with treasures. Despite the able performance of his deputies, there were still a few cheers when they departed to allow Darnielle a somewhat-improvised solo spot. "I don't plan the mid-set," Darnielle confessed to cover a pause. "I just feel my way into it. I'm an American, so I like to go into things with tape over my eyes."

As ever, it was a head-spinning delight to hear Darnielle's brilliantly captured tales of tragedy and dark comedy brought to life, the intricacies of which were all-too-familiar for the loyal acolytes. Surely some formal recognition is due since The Mountain Goats have some of the most devout fans going, as evidenced when the congregation sang back large chunks of relatively obscure tracks such as Up The Wolves and Oceanographer's Choice, as well as the wordy, complex No Children in its entirety. Darnielle gleefully abandoned his mic and let the voices ring out as he worked the front rows, belting lines out with only unrestrained passion to amplify his voice. As the applause died, warm, fuzzy feelings and a communal sense of having witnessed something special spread all around.