Live Review: The Preatures, Chela, Hollow Everdaze

There's only a handful of punters to shuffle into the centre of the floor when Hollow Everdaze kick off the night, which is a shame, because this band deserves a much bigger audience. The young four-piece are engaging and have presence; there's a bit of Kurt Vile drone to the singing (in a great way) but with a lot more energy and pace.

It's an odd mix warming the Northcote Social Club stage for The Preatures; next up is Chela, whose cookie-cutter hipness (New Balance sneakers – check, flat-brim cap – check, sports jersey – just like the blogs told you to wear last week, so check) sets teeth on edge. She starts with a bit of Grimes-lite, moves onto some Bat For Lashes-esque material and seems to be having fun. It's all well and good to be of-the-moment, but others are doing this better right now in Melbourne, and doing it more in-tune with well-written lyrics.

Luckily, The Preatures are here to save us, and they come out swinging from the start. They're dynamic and on-form, and they're just so fucking cool – there's square acreage of black leather jackets and too many audience members are probably now contemplating whether or not they can pull off white jeans.

In recent interviews, frontwoman Isabella Manfredi observed audiences are getting more into their shows and feeding back new energy to the band when they're performing, but that's in part to do with how much better they've become at connecting with the audience. Compared to their December 2012 gigs supporting San Cisco, when there was an edge of caricature to Manfredi's '70s/'80s rock goddess performance, they seem comfortable and into it and the crowd laps it up. They're hard to pin down, with echoes of Fleetwood Mac, although songs led by Gideon Bensen are more reminiscent of an earlier era, and his smooth performance certainly brings out the crowd's woo girls. The rest of the band are hitting it, although with two pretty big personalities up front there's not much room left in which to make their presence felt.

The audience is bamboozled when Manfredi asks who's here because of their single Is This How You Feel? – it feels insulting to condense it down to just that song and the band perhaps undersell their own growing popularity. While wrapping up with the hit certainly brings plenty of enthusiastic dancing (and even a little air guitar), it's promising that another highlight of this rocking, sexy show comes from new song Better Than It Ever Could Be.