Live Review: Hinds, The Creases, Tempura Nights

Local four-piece Tempura Nights are sporting a fill-in drummer tonight but it doesn't impede their focus, their cruisy indie-rock hardly breaking into a gallop early on with the sultry tempo suiting them perfectly. Focal point Alice Rezende is deadpan but charismatic as she bounces away to the music, the band's sound seeming a tad darker and moodier in places than usual, but old faves Mr Tone and catchy closer R.I.P. CHIX still bring plenty of their trademark melody and pop nous.

The main support slot has been billed as "special guests" tonight but burgeoning Brisbane four-piece The Creases soon make an entrance — augmented by a fifth member on keys and other embellishments — and they immediately seem relaxed and confident, armed with a bevy of cool tunes that they reel off like a conveyor belt. Guitarists Joe Agius and Jarrod Mahon take turns holding the vocal reins and complement each other well — their vocals abetted by perfect band harmonies and even Harriette Pilbeam from Babaganouj for the last few tracks — and while staples like Static Lines and Point go over well it's the Britpop-infused new single Impact they close with that really gets feet moving.

There's a sense of hedonism-tinged anticipation in the air, as if everyone's wondering whether Madrid garage sensation Hinds can really bring the party as their mythos and fun-addled music would suggest, and they start slowly out of the blocks with relatively sombre early tune Warning With The Curling (which features guitarist Ana Perrote rocking a kazoo for the duration), but soon surge through Trippy Gum and a run of rollicking garage tunes from their debut album Leave Me Alone — Fat Calmed Kiddos and besties anthem Warts — and it's like we're at a sloppy house party, the vibe one of total bonhomie. Indeed it seems fun is the main prerogative as Perrote and fellow guitarist Carlotta Cosials trade unrelenting vocal hooks over the perfectly ramshackle music, the bratty Walking Home seguing into a cover of Dead Ghosts' When It Comes To You — which they transform into a seductive torch song — before upping the ante again with the contagious Chili Town. The cultural divide and language barrier that initially stilted between-song communication melts away as the pace rises, the gang unleashing the stomping Easy and the memorable Bamboo in quick succession, their easy camaraderie spilling into the whole venue. These young rockers clearly have an implicit understanding of the punk and garage form already, and when they finish the set with a run of killer tunes in San Diego, Garden and Castigadas En El Granero and then return for an awesomely off-kilter rendition of Thee Headcoatees' Davey Crockett it's clear that they're the real deal.