Live Review: Slowly Slowly, Sincerely, Grizzly, Turn South, Press Club

Press Club hit the stage with a bang and don't let up. Natalie Foster has a massive voice and even bigger stage presence as she struts and poses, physically locked in time with the rest of the band. The no-frills bass, guitar and drums combo is very tight and loud; Foster must know how good they are because she jumps off the stage before the end of the last song to watch them bring it home.

Turn South keep the "tight/loud" theme going, their raucous, pop-inflected punk songs often undergoing multiple tempo shifts. The thunderous Choice hits us between the eyes amid a wash of pink light. Then there's another "old" song, distorted alt-rock guitar kicked along by sharp, syncopated drumming. "All our stuff's on all those music streaming places," we are assured; we're grateful for the tip.

As the sole non-Melburnians on the bill, Sincerely, Grizzly fly the flag for Adelaide with gusto. The hard-working three-piece make us think of The Smashing Pumpkins as they veer from sweet, intense melodies to massive indie-rock meltdowns. Did frontman Joshua Calligeros just say they got this gig thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation? Whatever. His vocal aerobics and guitar loops are mesmerising.

The DJ keeps us in a '90s frame of mind with back-to-back blink-182, before Slowly Slowly appear and immediately get down to business with Deathproof. It may be less than a year old but it is already an anthem. "This is fucking crazy," enthuses frontman Ben Stewart, who does a pretty good job throughout the night of being repeatedly blown away by the crowd. Next up, PMTWGR lurches from power chord to power chord before exploding in the bridge amid spiralling blue-and-red spotlights. "I'm trying to drag this out because I don't want it to end," says Stewart as he toys with his tuning keys between songs. Elbows starts out as a somnambulant sing-along, then noisily erupts as the lights shoot beams of violet and green. "This is the first song we ever wrote," announces Stewart; it's Go Easy, and when he tells us to jump along to those chunky chords, we happily oblige.

Incredibly, they're already getting close to the end, and we agree with Stewart that "it's gone way too fucking quick". As if to make every remaining second count, the band launches into a bracket of fast, loud songs, while some of the revellers around us get their crowd-surf on. At one point, the bass player gets hit by a plastic bottle, which is poor form on the part of whoever threw it, but he just grins, gives the old one-fingered salute, and keeps right on playing — what a pro. We really are at the end now; the rest of the band departs and, as the dust settles, Stewart stands and delivers the title track from last year's LP Chamomile, its melody and lyrics evidencing the pop spirit that lies at the centre of all the noise.