Live Review: Lamb

The stage set-up utilises pink searchlights through smoke, there's a slinky graphic on the backdrop (from latest album Backspace Unwind’s cover art) and several halved mirror balls interspersed across the upstage floor.

Lamb open with In Binary and singer Lou Rhodes looks like a Grecian goddess in a draped, long-sleeved, floor-length white gown and elegantly styled up 'do. If her hair were in two buns, one on either side of her noggin, she'd resemble Princess Leia. She sounds heavenly. The sudden impact of that bass, which rumbles through the floorboards like a maximum-magnitude earthquake, is arresting. You almost expect to see punters propelled into the air! It's the last night of their Australian tour and Rhodes promises, "This is just gonna rock!" She then moans that triple j refuses to add their latest single to rotation and urges us to ring the station. A neighbour in the crowd turns to share her awe regarding Rhodes' age, "She's 50! That's why she can't smile!" (It's true; Rhodes tends more toward a gentle, close-mouthed grin).

There's a scent of Red Bull in the air as old-skool partygoers aren't as well connected as they once were for substances to keep them awake all though the night. We momentarily enter the rave at the tail-end of one track before Rhodes introduces, "the man with the strange stick”, on double bass: Jon Thorne. Rhodes dedicates Nobody Else ("There's nobody else for me/No, no, nobody else will do") to her Valentine. She then compliments Melbourne for our "strong cultural undercurrent". Gabriel is simply glorious. Instead of passing around baggies, Lamb fans are now witnessed circulating lens-cleaning cloths. B-Line's unpredictable beats and "Ba da/Ba da/Ba da/Ba da" heartbeat-throbbing lyrics really do evoke infatuation and the song's a belter! "Thank you very much, good night," before Górecki?

After a panoramic photo is taken of their audience with hands in the air, our encore commences with What Sound. A "ninja fourth member" sneaks on stage to take over from Andy Barlow on keys when he runs forward to pound on a tom during the best possible Valentine's Day song, Górecki. Disappointing to see Buzz Killlington jolt his girlfriend back to his side after she excitedly grabs his hand, hoping to race down the front for a closer appreciation of Lamb's greatest hit, though.

Come on, man, she may dance funny but it's Val's Day! Rhodes announces they'll be signing stuff at the merch desk after the show and Barlow prompts her to add that he's single. Rhodes then straps on a guitar to play the band's final song, for which the ninja fourth member is also required, this time so Barlow can crowdsurf in a half-circle from stage right to stage left. He does so successfully without touching the ground and we glide out onto the busy city streets saving celestial sounds into our memory banks until Lamb's next visit.