Live Review: Hideous Sun Demon, Wobbegong, Chronic Fatique, Doctopus, Hamjam, The Wheelers of Oz, Apollo's Son

Numbers may have only trickled in for the most part of the night, but the quality of Friday night’s all-local show was exceptional.

Apollo’s Son kicked things off with some wonderfully intricate psych-rock with a real post-apocalyptic edge – the first and last tracks were particularly strong, and the band does a great job at building some very scenic landscapes. Keep an eye on ‘em. The Wheelers Of Oz upped the ante with some twangy fuzz-rock, complete with hazy guitars and some real catchy guitar hooks, before Hamjam took to the stage, appearing as a duo for the evening. Despite the lack of numbers, they were no less effective in their delivery – Hamish Rahn hulked over the microphone and hypnotised us all with his part skuzz, part dreamy vocal performance, while James Ireland took care of all other business, providing drum samples and those extra bits and pieces to make the performance sound as full as possible.

Donning an oversized basketball guernsey, Steve Bellair set up his mic stand on the floor in front of stage for Doctopus’ set, seemingly wanting to get up close and personal with punters. They swarmed to the front in response and it made for an awesome performance, full of pace and energy from both collective parties. The band seemed to fly through their tracks so fast that they finished up having only performed for about 20 minutes. Chronic Fatigue was played at twice the speed and had everyone jumping around, while final track Wobbegong sounded slack as anything, but my god, it was a helluva lot of fun.

Hideous Sun Demon drew a mini-horde in and fed off their energy from the get go. Staple setlist tracks Flex, Moan For Jesus and Bricklover were standouts and despite not being as free to move around the stage, Vin Buchanan-Simpson was just as weird and eccentric as ever in his vocal projection. The biggest surprise of the night was that they all didn’t topple over mid-song as the result of someone letting off two shop-bought fart bombs throughout the set, but they kept their composure and produced the night’s highlight with their epically riffy final track Neon Sound, leaving the audience with little wonder as to why the band is quickly becoming noted as one of the very best acts around town these days.