Live Review: Frenzal Rhomb, Bloods, Batfoot

Sydney punk rock mainstays Batfoot kicked off the evening's proceedings with a lean and mean set of their Ramones-influenced pop punk. Like comparable American cohorts The Queers and Screeching Weasel, Batfoot are best enjoyed as a Ramones tribute act who happen to write their own material. It won't win any originality medals, but they know what they do, and they do it damn well.

Female presence in punk rock is powerfully underrepresented, so it was great having power trio Bloods continue to warm up the growing crowd with their Dead Kennedys-influenced vibrations. Dual female vocal harmonies and playful loud/quiet dynamics showed the band's near-mastery of the pop form. Not that this undercut their punk rock attitude though – this was no-nonsense, shot-in-the-arm punk rock to yell along to. Definitely a group to pay attention to.

Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian institution – and between album releases has always been a great time to see them. With much of the night's humour coming from frontman Jay Whalley's recent brain tapeworm (Google it, seriously), the band showed why they're the icons of Australian punk rock that they are. With a virtual greatest hits setlist being on the cards, the crowd was treated to classics like Bucket Bong, We're Going Out Tonight and a surprise performance of crossover mainstream hit, You Are Not My Friend. There's little new to write about Frenzal Rhomb – they're simply one of Australia's most important and vital groups – even in 2013. It's amazing how much fun the band have on stage and inject into the crowd, even after more than two decades of performing. Much of the crowd may not have even been born when the band dropped their debut EP, but that's the power of their music; it manages to shape and be shaped by the scene it lives in. It's short, fun and fast, sure, but it's still evolved and changed enough over the years so that it all still sounds so fresh. With an encore of gems Punch In The Face and Never Had So Much Fun, there was little to long for from a night that solidified the band's position of greatness.