Live Review: Garbage, Olympia, Tiny Little Houses

While any band probably would have found opening tonight's proceedings challenging, Melburnians Tiny Little Houses nevertheless offered an especially inauspicious introduction for the evening's early attendees. The group's middling approximation of shambolic '90s indie-rock trends may have proven more palatable in a more intimate environment, but their complete lack of energy and enthusiasm makes such concerns irrelevant. In light of the idiosyncrasy and aggression of tonight's headliner, the band's utterly milquetoast stylings felt not only disappointing but also almost insulting.

Olivia Bartley's Olympia acquitted themselves with greater verve. While the booming acoustics of the venue weren't kind to the group's primal blend of organ-driven distortion or Bartley's strident vocals, their energy, excitement and musicianship ensured their material translated well enough to captivate and excite tonight's crowd. A cover of TV On The Radio's Wolf Like Me felt especially visceral.

But, in circumstances such as these, a venue's acoustics and stage are set up to especially privilege the headliner and, when Garbage took to the stage, it revealed a considerable gulf between them and their openers. Whereas both supports were at the mercy of the venue's acoustics, Garbage dominated them. Their live instrumentation sounded colossal. Their electronics crisp and expressive.

As a whole, the band's performance ranged from acceptable to tremendous. Shirley Manson's inescapable enthusiasm and theatrical tendencies ruled in a scabrous reading of 2005's Why Do You Love Me. Conversely, the band's airing of 1995's #1 Crush felt somewhat sloppy and rushed. But, throughout, they sounded utterly magnificent from the pulsing, surprisingly aggressive rework of Stupid Girl to the sky-scraping nihilism of 2016's Empty.

And, when it all came together, it spoke of a scope of spectacle, danger, ambition and passion that's grown rare over the course of Garbage's career. A performance rife with opportunities for igniting moments of catharsis, creativity and communion through the power of pure volume and earworm choruses. In the eyes of many, Garbage seem to have become something of a nostalgia act, but whatever it is that they long for and seek to champion felt utterly timeless tonight.