Live Review: Chapterfest 21: Dick Diver & Twerps, Geoffrey O'Connor, Bushwalking, The Stevens, Darren Sylvester, The Ancients

Kicking of Chapterfest 21 for Melbourne Music Week, The Ancients warm us up with their easygoing brand of ambient garage-pop. The venue's impressive dome structure is well suited to housing their softly experimental sound, with touches of flashing, coloured lights and a wisp of dry-ice creating a unique atmosphere.

As dusk falls, Darren Sylvester hits the stage with brighter projections to impress the quickly growing crowd. His brooding, spectral electro-pop transforms into a livelier '80s-style sound, infused with artificial, retro horns. He's solid, but his set feels generic, perhaps due to the genre's current ubiquitousness.

Tight and sharp, The Stevens' garage-style scrappiness and great energy is carried off fantastically. At once jangly and raw, their set is littered with bass hooks and unpretentious male harmonies while Teenage Satellites showcases their shared approach to lead vocals. Demonstrating what great contemporary Melbourne indie-rock can be, they prove an event highlight.

Driven by disjointed, dark melodies and simple, rhythmic drum patterns, Bushwalking feature deep, spectral harmonies between bassist Ela Stiles and drummer Nisa Venerosa, notably in impressively long, fluid notes. However their set suffers from self-indulgence: lengthy instrumental segments of scratchy guitar and repetitive basslines.

Similarly to Darren Sylvester, groovy Geoffrey O'Connor plays synthy, '80s-influenced pop. Opening with the simultaneously retro and futuristic Proud, his almost karaoke-style music feels incongruous with the other acts on tonight's bill. Given this, plus his more dance-happy set, the show's trajectory would have benefitted from O'Connor playing after the headliners. 

The unusual collaborative set between Twerps and Dick Diver finally arrives, beginning with Twerps playing two songs on their own before Dick Diver come out as the crowd roar in approval. While there aren't enough instruments for everyone, this is easily remedied by three people sharing drumming duties for their first collaborative song, a scrappy rendition of Dick Diver's Languages Of Love. Dick Diver then play alone, including crowd-favourite Calendar Days. During this, Twerps frontman Marty Frawley comes back on stage, uninvited, to boogie and play out-of-time tambourine. Twerps guitarist Julia McFarlane then sings her own New Guy with Dick Diver, her distinctive, nasally vocals evoke a bell singing. Matched with Dick Diver guitarist Ru Edwards, the pair perform a stand-out duet. The bands play insipid covers (many obscure) – perhaps more fun for them than the audience, especially given both bands' excellent back catalogues. Frequently screwing up and laughing, ultimately they don't seem to take this event particularly seriously. However their playful personalities can't help but win punters over every time.