Thanks to a perfectly balmy summer evening, punters get comfortable with picnic blankets, cheeses and snacks as the golden light cascades through the trees and over the hill. As we pass the tree kangaroos and Asian elephant enclosure, the atmosphere is lovely — barefooted people trod to the water to grab a photo of the sun flowing through the harbour bridge, wine in hand, others eat sliders with their families.

Birds Of Tokyo kick off with Broken Bones and though a handful of people flock to the front of the stage, the sold-out gig has an unmistakably intimate feel. Ian Kenny's awkward white-boy dancing (bless) is, of course, on show through songs like Weight Of The World and Plans, the latter getting many a middle-aged mum up and dancing, especially when it breaks into Eye Of The Tiger. The band's uniform tonight is all black — Kenny's wearing a black shirt over his tee, buttoned just at the top like a Latino gangster, while guitarist Adam Spark dons a Jared Leto-esque sarong and Glenn a huge wide-brimmed hat.

Tonight is as much about the band as it is about the audience. Maybe this scribe has just had enough of pushy young kids storming to the front of the pit, but the fact that people are content to stand around and dance, snack a little, have another glass of wine, let their kids hang at the front of the crowd watching in awe, is super refreshing. More gigs should feel this relaxing. I'll Go With You Anywhere is given a semi-acoustic makeover, with Ian Berney playing a viola bass and Adam Weston bringing some triplets and rim shots out on the kit. Kenny and Spark take Wayside fully acoustic for a song, letting the rest of the band have a breather as they lead the crowd on a singalong that could wake the baby meerkats (hope not). Silhouettic even warrants the use of a saxophonist, all of them shrouded in heavy red lights, the band grinning at their guest after his solo. "We're gonna do something by a hero of ours, someone we just lost," Kenny says as he leads us into Bowie's Ashes To Ashes, something our demographic know and hold dear. The opening notes of Anchor also send the crowd into pre-emptive cheers, and the song and its huge chorus doesn't disappoint.

The fake encore consists of unofficial Australian anthem of sorts Lanterns along with similarly epic This Fire. Selfies are taken with the band in the background, hands are thrown up in surrender, and then we file out, bidding good night to the animals we kept up.