Live Review: Exek, UV Race, Bent, The Shifters

Starting things off, The Shifters are (strangely) billed first. This band have the songs and performance chops that could easily see them rounding out the night and tonight they do sound great. Their blend of indie-Australiana is as smooth as butter, but, and maybe it is the starting slot, The Shifters are not the best they have been performance-wise on The Tote stage. They seem less energetic than normal and a few minor slip-ups here and there just sorta make their set good but not great.

Making their way down from the land of pre-historic lockout laws and fake beaches (aka Brisbane), Bent sit in a blissful punk world with an underlying pop charm. Tonight, they are at a great place as a band. They approach the performance with no inhibitions and their confident stage presence comes across in their playing. The mix also really complements the group, loud and good quality sound is the way to experience Bent (despite a defining lo-fi aesthetic on record) and tonight they have clearly done well since a gang of smokers peer in the window from the courtyard to catch a glimpse.

When you have the almighty UV Race as a support it's deadset gonna be the set of the night. It is, but they seem a little tired in more ways than one. Al Montfront is fresh off the boat from Europe, which is discussed in the trademark UV stand-up portion of the night. But we just really need new material from this band! Burn That Cat et al are all still amazing songs, especially on The Tote stage, but for regular fans it gets a bit worn. The set ends a little abruptly and, despite hitting the time-target, it felt like more was due. We have seen Marcus Rechsteiner's primal top half enough, let's see what else he's got under the hood.

Launching their latest LP Biased Advice and rounding out the night, Exek feel different. The mix for them is kind of off. The impressive analogue synth to the right is inaudible throughout while the equally impressive saxophonist to the other side sometimes blissfully swallows the rest of the hit-and-miss instrumentation. Maybe it's the relaxed feel of the night, but The Dead C-flavoured, post-punk darkness within their music gets lost in translation. At times they kind of come off as NO ZU-meets-Slug Guts, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but the immersive nature highlighted on the LP the band is launching just sorta disappears and 'fun' wasn't the vibe we expected.