Live Review: Methyl Ethel, Reef Prince, Erasers

Kicking off the first of a sold-out pair of shows for the headlining act, the beer garden at Badlands was bustling when Erasers took to the stage for a largely empty room.

The pair didn't seem phased by the crowd proportions though. Winding through a set of analogue synth and monotone reverbing vocals from the opener Haze & Clouds, their drone pop was a down-tempo but immersive start to the night.

Reef Prince (aka Stephen Bellair) wasted no time in utterly confusing the shit out of the room. The tongue-in-cheek trap rapper tiptoed along the line of an ironically cool performance and took the absolute piss so well that for the first half of his set, most of the crowd had zero idea of what their social cues were. The Doctopus frontman may be fucking good at ironic hip hop, but he's also fucking great at stirring a crowd. By the end of his set everybody was getting into Abalonely B0i in some way, shape or form.

Sneaking onto the stage with virtually no fanfare, Methyl Ethel shook the crowd when the rolling drum thuds of Summer Moon echoed through the room. With vocalist Jake Webb fading into stage left whenever the microphone wasn't required and a spiralling blue backdrop to silhouette the band, it was the tracks that took pride of place. Soaked in the lush melodies of No 28, Rogues, Idee Fixe and Architecture Lecture, the outfit brought a minimalistic stage presence to life with sharp songwriting and a flawless performance.

Apart from Webb leaving the stage briefly to swap out a guitar lead, even the interaction on stage was kept to a minimum, and it barely mattered - the crowd was already possessed with standouts Twilight Driving, Drink Wine and a set closer of Ubu. Methyl Ethel have been steamrolling the live music scene since the release of their latest record, so it's not surprising from this performance that the Everything Is Forgotten tour has sold out across the country.