Live Review: Deep Sea Arcade, Hey Geronimo, Chicks Who Love Guns

Chicks Who Love Guns kicked things off with some raw, unrefined grunge tracks the day before their own headline show in Sydney. The school holidays brought an interesting mix of old and young to the Metro, with the teenagers responding loudest to their stomping punk set.

Hey Geronimo exploded onto the stage in an energetic fit of infectious fun. The Brisbane pop rockers don't seem to take themselves too seriously, though they put everything they had into their charming set. Opening with Lazer Gun Show Hey Geronimo owned the crowd straight away. Their sound is a mixture of '50s love rock'n'roll, '60s pop and '00s indie – kind of like the lovechild of Modest Mouse and The Beach Boys, with a nostalgic quality to a lot of their tracks. A few tracks like Co-Op Bookshop required a trombone player, which really added to that '50s-'60s vibe. They finished strong with triple j hits Carbon Affair and Why Don't We Do Something.

The chant went up well before Deep Sea Arcade came onstage: “D-S-A,” the rowdy crowd sang, eventually getting their wish and going berserk before a guitar had been strummed. The walking bassline and modulated keys of Seen No Right were heard first, and the Metro embraced Deep Sea Arcade in their first show back from the UK. The crowd bounced with the huge swinging '60s hook of their latest single Black Cat, which would slot nicely into an Austin Powers soundtrack. Nic McKenzie glided across the stage, effortlessly producing perfect vocals and playing with the eager crowd, teaching them to play guitar with their mouths and making them dance like his own personal puppets. Fuzzy, reverberated guitar melodies and thumping basslines came one after the other, and didn't give the crowd a chance to lose interest or stop dancing. Lonely In Your Arms and Steam proved crowd favourites in a set with no lulls, and after the set the “D-S-A,” chant went up again, pushing the band to finish the night with a two-song encore.