Live Review: Velociraptor, Bloods, Spookyland, Paul Conrad

Paul Conrad began the evening on a low note with a set made up of chilling ballads, with simple softly strummed electric guitar and a Joe Newman sort of quirky smoothness to his vocals. Under the right circumstances these songs could easily have been heartbreaking, but regrettably the early set felt at least a little out of place, and set something of a gloomy tone for the evening.

Spookyland’s dark, gutsy folk-rock soon lifted the energy, with driving guitars and drums beneath singer Marcus Gordon’s distinctive voice. The band’s live sound was full and punchy, with a world-eating strength behind single The Silly Fucking Thing. From soft, folksy beginnings, the songs opened up – one to an unexpected, somewhat discordant country jam, and another a wall of victorious Americana, with bright, full guitars giving off an all-encompassing sense of power.

Sydney punks Bloods delivered something a little closer to what the crowd had expected from the evening – dose after dose of catchy, spunky, two-minute pop-punk songs. New tune Penelope stood out with its riot-grrrl edge, but the whole mile-a-minute set showed the band in top form, with a raw, bratty energy that would put Be Your Own Pet to shame. Every song was a highlight in a set that was over much too soon.

Velociraptor opened with the thunderous In The Springtime; just drums at first, as member after member strolled onstage. Even stripped down to eight touring members, the band is a spectacle, and made the NSC’s stage look like a welcome mat. The band then tore into Riot, an apt name for a chaotic garage-rock jam, this time with a dark, bluesy breakdown.

These tracks blended well with tunes from the Raptors’ new LP, many of which are noticeably more mellow than the band’s early stuff. The result of this was a multi-layered set, and while LP tracks like Leeches and One Last Serenade aren’t exactly ballads, they provided moments for the crowd to catch their breath. Like every Raptors gig, it ended with a flooded stage (as if it wasn’t already), with 30-odd fans jostling joyously for the mic to cheer out the pitch-perfect power-pop hookfest of Ramona.