Live Review: Grinspoon, Hockey Dad, Good Boy

Welcoming punters in the sold-out room to the celebration of this prestigious event, Brisbane's Good Boy warmed up the colossal crowd. It became quickly apparent that stages of this magnitude are not familiar to this trio. However, the three-piece powered through a fast performance of indie Aussie pub-punk that sounds like a mixture of Adelaide's Bad//Dreems and Arctic Monkeys. Fishing With A Shotgun was a charming number that saw Good Boy at their best, however, these Brisvegas boys could use an extended period of time on the road to really refine their live show.

Windang's surf pop-punk duo Hockey Dad boosted our energy levels. Drummer Billy Fleming is a maniacal mathematician behind the kit, while his guitarist/vocalist co-star Zach Stephenson controlled and inspired the audience with his catchy choruses and Brian Molko-like vocals. Latest single Can't Have Them was an excellent hint at what the pair have in store for the future, but it was crowd favourites like Laura, A Night Out With and Raygun that really captivated the majority inside Adelaide Entertainment Centre. South Australia was now prepared for the main event.

In 1997, an alternative-metal, post-grunge band from the small town of Lismore, New South Wales were about to alter Australian heavy music on a global level with the release of their debut album Guide To Better Living. That band is Grinspoon and they have reunited to celebrate the 20th anniversary of this life-changing creation.

Guide To Better Living achieved platinum status in Australia, it garnered an ARIA nomination, it sold over 12,000 copies in the USA and Grinspoon's humble beginnings as a triple j Unearthed-winning band were changed for the remainder of their 18-year career. What better way to celebrate such an iconic record than playing it in full to massive audiences around the country? This writer has no better suggestions and thankfully not only did the quartet come through with a pivotal performance, they truly outdid themselves.

The show itself was a time warp. However, remarkably, Pat Davern, Joe Hansen, Kristian Hopes and enigmatic frontman Phil Jamieson became the younger versions of themselves from the word go on opener Pressure Tested; Adelaide witnessed Grinspoon as their 20-year-old counterparts. Their vitality was measureless and, in short, the four-piece dominated. Jamieson was superhuman, delivering the vocal performance of his career while maintaining a spiritedness that would equal that of an Olympic gymnast. The other three soldiers of the post-grunge group delivered pitch-perfect live renditions of their adored songs with an exuberance that was on an entirely different level. Crowd-surfers, deafening singalongs and a threatening moshpit were all utilised by South Australians especially during favourites like DCX3, Railrider, Just Ace and Champion. In a superb variation, Jamieson brought out the acoustic guitar for Bad Funk Stripe, which offered an intermission and delicacy that is rarely experienced by Grinspoon devotees.

An unsurprising-but-very appreciated encore included Chemical Heart, Lost Control, Ready 1, No Reason, Thrills, Kills & Sunday Pills and (thankfully) More Than You Are that was essentially a champagne ending to the performance. Just as that debut album hosts unquantifiable magic, so did Grinspoon on this night. If these four gentlemen could just do one further favour to the world - take your own song advice, please: Don't Go Away.