Live Review: Something For Kate, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

We open our night out at the last Saturday of Spectrum Now with Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. We've entered through the festival hub, buzzing with the sound of covers from Furnace & The Fundamentals - people are dancing at the free stage, gulping down tiny free Hendricks G&Ts (with cucumber sorbet!) and chowing down on Playa Takeria and Burgers By Josh. The night is aglow thanks to the so-called Cathedral Of Light (an A+ place for late night, tipsy selfies). The Melbourne pop band on in the Big Top don't have much of a crowd going for them, but they play their easy folk/indie/almost alt-country with gusto nonetheless, three guitarists, including one acoustic, giving them a real density of sound. It's lush, it's toe-tapping, it deserves more from the assembled crowd.

But then the devoted followers of our man Demps arrive, ready to stand almost still, mouths agape, heads cocked back, mumbling along with every word. It's Something For Kate time, the band welcoming home bass player Stephanie Ashworth for the first time since their 20th anniversary tour in 2014, and featuring touring member Adrian Stoyles on keys/second guitar. Paul Dempsey and Clint Hyndman are here as always - the latter bashing the drums with furious energy, the drum riser jerking as if it might roll forward at any moment, drumsticks flying out of his hands and into the air, especially during songs from latest record Leave Your Soul To Science; the former wobbling across the stage like a baby giraffe learning to walk (type that into YouTube, you won't be disappointed) throughout the set, the charismatic frontman letting rip on his guitar, his torso bent forward, fringe over his eyes. Ashworth meanwhile is the image of cool, calm, collected, shoes off, not even looking up from her bass to lock eyes with partner Dempsey when he ambles over to play behind her, guitar neck raised.

They open with Captain (Million Miles An Hour), before cycling through the hits of their last 20-plus years on the scene. It's a series of crowd-pleasers: Three Dimensions, Survival Expert, Hallways, Eureka, You Only Hide, Cigarettes And Suitcases, Monsters (the crowd passionately singing along), Say Something, Down The Garden Path, Star-Crossed Citizens, Deja Vu (off their self-proclaimed "most fourth record"), Miracle Cure and The Astronaut. Then it's Demps in solo acoustic mode for emotional renditions of Beautiful Sharks and Deep Sea Divers. The band returns for our first taste of a SFK cover version tonight with their take on Calvin Harris/Florence Welch's Sweet Nothing, before set closer Electricity.

Paul Dempsey is welcomed back to the stage by the cheers of the faithful to perform a cover of Hazel's Truly, the full band returning for REM's The One I Love and our finale Pinstripe.