Live Review: Morning Harvey, Plastic, Smoke Rings

Smoke Rings bring noisy '90s Britpop to 2017 Collingwood, with massive vocals and strong melodies awash with a dense haze of bass, guitar, drums and keys. There's some disagreement among band members over whether to play a new song, but in the end they do, and it rocks. Recent single Go To Hell bounds along on the back of a catchy guitar lick, and when some wag requests Tubthumping by Chumbawamba, instead we get Blur's Girls And Boys, which is wholly more appropriate.

Plastic introduce themselves: "We're Plastic, formerly known as Bon Jovi." In fact, from the first song we are hearing traces of Howl era Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, albeit with a drum track and keyboard loops marking time for the fuzz guitar and shoegazey vocals. Once the live drums kick in we're even more impressed, as increasingly the big atmospheric rock sound combines with some impressively concise time signature acrobatics. When they do switch to common time, the drummer loses one of his cymbals and it is swiftly retrieved by the rhythm guitarist. They barely miss a beat.

Brisbane's Morning Harvey hit the stage and immediately bust out a solid barrage of noise pop. Lead vocalist Spencer White is a captivating frontman, both vocally and in terms of his swaggering stage manner - it's hard to take our eyes off him as he leers hands-free over his mic stand. Latest single Holy Gun boasts a thunderous rhythm section and a few epic prog rock digressions. A boisterous bass line and nifty little guitar solo lift the next song to ecstatic highs, and we're right there with it, before a sardonic, bottom-heavy track brings us back to earth - it has the band room shaking to the point that we're wondering if the patrons downstairs are having to sift flakes of plaster out of their Melbourne Bitters. 

White is having trouble reading his set list amid the flecked purple light from the mirror ball, but the delay is temporary, and thereafter Morning Harvey really hit their straps, belting their way through an anthemic stadium rock number with a singalong chorus. After a song that sounds like Velvet Underground cranked to 11, White announces they've only got two songs left. The first, Lights Camera Gina is like a slightly gothic take on Talking Heads, with a dance-ready bass line and sludgy pop veneer. Then Susanne Monday keeps the dancing going with its stomping beat, tantalising guitar licks and intermittently talky and falsetto vocals.