Live Review: The Smith Street Band, The Menzingers, Grim Fandango

Two nights in a row, two sold out shows; the Brisbane legion of The Smith Street Band cult can't get enough of these Melbourne lads. And it can't hurt things that the guys always put together a stacked bill when they roll through town. Perth's punk-by-the-way-of-folk-storytelling outfit Grim Fandango have had plenty going for them since the release of Flicker Noise last year, and they deserve a spot playing to the quickly filling room. They get the energy pumping, and the room starts to move. 

Perhaps the best Smith Street support since Bomb! The Music Industry absolutely killed it back at X&Y, The Menzingers' set is an absolute gem. Their music is like everything you were listening to when you were 15 and it's powerful enough to make you feel like you're 15 again. American punk rock played with a winning mixture of passion and precision, their set is powerful stuff and does a great job of getting people interested in their forthcoming record.

The Smith Street Band feel like one of your friend's bands, but not one of those godawful bands where your friend keeps inviting you out to their shows and desperately asks what you thought afterwards. The Smith Street Band are like your friend's band that you're excited to champion, because, dammit, they're the little guys and they deserve to be championed. Where things get interesting though, is that now they're playing sold out shows and it feels like The Smith Street Band have an entire room full of friends, and they're all so excited to back their mates. It's probably something to do with frontman Wil Wagner and his lyrics; they're poetic and disarmingly personal, but they also invite listeners to envisage themselves as part of the world of these songs. Tonight, the crowd is invited into that joyous and uplifting world of bad trips, bleary-eyed fun and broken hearts.

There's hardly a misstep from the lads, our good mates, tonight. Even when they road-test new material – a rock'n'roll decision that's been historically fraught with danger – the crowd is right there with them. This is just like Wagner and his buddies spinning the crowd a yarn that they haven't heard before, but they're all ears. Nothing jumps out from the new material – a record is still a ways away and some of the tunes sound in their infancy – but all of the familiar cuts hit the spot, with Young Drunk, Postcodes (For People Who Will Not Arrest Me) and Don't Fuck With Our Dreams all bringing the house down. And it's hard to imagine that, in 12 months' time, these songs debuted tonight won't have the same effect on crowds. Good one bros.