Live Review: 65daysofstatic, Sleepmakeswaves & Bon Chat, Bon Rat

Sydney indie electro rockers Bon Chat, Bon Rat opened the evening's proceedings with their brand of shimmering experimental pop. The small crowd turnout didn't hurt the band, whose Battles-cum-Cocteau Twins sound is better played for its own sake. The three-piece have a bright future ahead of themselves if they continue to play like they did.

Australia's premier instrumental rock opening act sleepmakeswaves wasted no time exploding onto the stage; their hard rocking, crescendo-core post-rock continues to improve with every show. They're hardly the most original instrumental rock band around, but what they do, they do damn well.

65daysofstatic came onto the stage in darkness, playing along to a recording of their Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here – a decidedly inauspicious start to a very long-awaited Sydney debut show. When they got into their groove though, their unique style of electronic, glitch-driven post-rock really hit hard and the crowd loved it. For such a brilliant experimental rock act, 65daysofstatic really relied on pre-recorded overdubs throughout their set, as piano samples, electronic drones and drum beats pulled right from their CDs framed most songs they played, which led to an incredibly tight performance, but left very little room for experimentation or movement. Ironically, when the band played their more electronic material, such as setlist highlights Weak4 and Dance Dance Dance, the samples relented and the band were able to show off their brilliance and give the gig a more 'live' feeling than their rockier material allowed. Setlist closer, Radio Protector was as suitably epic and outstanding as it needed to be. After such a long wait it was hard to not expect a more 'live' performance from the band, but a terrific setlist more than sated the crowd's post-rock desire.