Live Review: Dead Letter Circus, sleepmakeswaves, Voyager

The home-town headliners have drawn in a good crowd from a steamy night outside and they seem more than happy to welcome Perth’s Voyager to the stage.

The five-piece are certainly not guilty of foregoing the hard yards to find themselves on this stage; since 1989 singer Danny Estrin and his players have honed their varied sound to what it is tonight: melodic, clean, well structured and brutal. They bust out the much loved Hyperventilating off this year's V and The Devil In Me from 2009's I Am The a Revolution with its title track, as well as a bunch of old and newer gems, and all go over extremely well; these guys know how to build a song and their prog indulgence is a treat.

Sydney’s sleepmakeswaves have had a breakthrough year, getting themselves regular spin on the airwaves – a feat for an instrumental post-rock four-piece – playing alongside heavy-hitters here and abroad, and even garnering a few ARIA nods. The ever bald and bearded Alex Wilson gives his warm thanks before throwing his bass and his proficient merry men into Perfect Detonator off their latest.

Guitarist Otto Wicks-Green loses himself in the flurry of those gifted fingers and his crystalline pedal effects in Traced In Constellations, while drummer Tim Adderly is a confusion of hair and limbs as he bashes his way through oldies In Limbs And Joints and We Sing The Body Electric, leaving mesmerising newbie Something Like Avalanches until last.

However well their other city shows have gone down on this tour, it’s clear Brisbane’s own high-octane prog-metallers Dead Letter Circus love a home crowd. Singer Kim Benzie quantifies it, giving thanks to “all the old faces that feel like family”, before they get down to business after an exuberant stride onstage to some festive drum ’n’ bass Christmas carols.

The appreciative stance the audience adopted for the support slots quickly goes out the window when Benzie unleashes first-album favourite Next In Line. Their long-standing penchant for frequent and faultless live and local shows over the past decade offers a blistering set bursting with favourites. Reaction, Cage, Lines, The Space On The Wall, Here We Divide, and Lodestar (which Benzie tells us his wife insists he play it in its fast and furious form instead of “fucking around by playing it slow”) all get the huge crowd surges and sing-alongs these anthems deserve. He cajoles the pit, drummer Luke Williams jumps to his feet while he thrashes those skins, and everyone’s favourite bass player Stew Hill does his usual contortionist back bends while snapping his strings.

Their gleeful vibe continues until the last beat of set-closer Big drops, and then seeps into their acoustic cover of Killing In The Name Of for their sign off.