Live Review: Gold Class, Flowertruck, Neighbourhood Void

It was great to arrive and see the newly reopened Lansdowne Hotel hit the ground running with a busy downstairs bar and a band room that, as it filled, had a definite vibe and communal atmosphere.

Youngsters Neighbourhood Void were the first to grace the low stage and they played a strong and impressive set on the back of their recently released debut album. Raw enthusiasm, a direct line to Kurt Cobain and probably a love for Car Seat Headrest have shaped their quiet/loud, noisy/melodic sound but they own it and played it like their lives depended on it with a mix of gleeful abandon and desperation.

Flowertruck have garnered praise and gained momentum over the last couple of years and that experience was evident in their tight and consummate performance. Some songs still drift by while others like recent single Dying To Hear and older song I Wanna Be With You, stick like glue. Frontman Charles Rushforth's over-emoting can still grate at times but there's no denying the strength of his voice and the band's ability to deliver rousing indie-pop to a receptive audience.

Gold Class have stepped up a notch with this sold out show, fans baying for them to take the stage and the rapturous, bouncing mosh pit reception they received. Their live sound is even more brittle and visceral than their recordings, the uniformity and minimalism of their sound enhanced even more. They almost had a monochrome palette of sound with a grinding industrial post-punk bass, slashing, dissonant guitar and in new drummer Logan Gibson they have a human metronome tying it all together with tension and propulsion. New songs were aired - including the excellent new single Twist In The Dark that highlighted how much darker and intense the new songs are getting when held against older songs like Michael. Singer Adam Curley seems more at home on stage, still aloof and slightly detached but willing to go all in when the song demands it. His glorious bellowing, austere voice is a commanding instrument, perfectly matched by the rest of the band. Gold Class were a band on the cusp of great things. Album number two has all the hallmarks of the group achieving them.