Live Review: Northeast Party House

Northeast Party House

In the not too distant past, the parents of one Melbourne teenager made the fateful decision to leave town on a short business trip. This led to a Corey Worthington-style party of unbelievable proportions. The party ended up going for two straight weeks and partially destroyed the home of the Northeast family, but gained a mythological status among Melbourne youth at the time. In that house, between booming house music and many VBs, Australia's most exciting party band was conceived.

Northeast Party House have built their cult on live performances, and their effort at the Gov proved just why they've had so much success. Although the crowd took some warming up when the fiery six-piece took the stage with their new single, Perfect Lines, by the second song the mosh was alive and writhing, people were being ejected and a man with a BYO cowbell was adding his own flair to the tracks.

The success of the party was down to the infectious fun the band was having during the performance. Frontman Zac Hamilton-Reeves, with a torrent of sweat pouring down his forehead, could hardly keep still and almost lost the microphone multiple times during funk-rock headbanging sessions.

The crowd also had all the signs of devoted party people, embodying the band's ethos, which celebrates the out of control excess enjoyed by youth. The difference between these punters and the crowd you find at any local club was that these people were all about the mutual experience of enjoying a great band, which led to a sea of people on shoulders and valiant attempts at crowd surfing.

The performance was completely absorbing, with Hamilton-Reeves conducting the crowd through the set and setting the tone perfectly for each number. The highlight was during their hit The Haunted, when Hamilton-Reeves slowed the crowd and got everyone low on the dance floor, only to explode back into almost convulsive partying with redoubled vigour when the chorus reappeared.

The boys did a damn fine job and owe much of their success to their passion and the electric personality of Hamilton-Reeves, who controlled the mood to a T. They left the crowd screaming for an encore, which prompted guitarist Jack Shoe to come onstage and sheepishly announce that they were out of songs. They nonetheless managed to pull one out of the hat, with the disclaimer from Shoe that "some of you will probably have no idea what this song is" and Hamilton-Reeves quipping, "I don't really know all of the lyrics." Reading the words off his phone Hamilton-Reeves and the band blasted out an amped-up, Northeast Party House-style Sugar Ray cover,  Every Morning, that left the crowd exhausted and voiceless as they sang and danced their way to the end of the set.

After five years of continuous touring, you'd expect a fairly decent live show, and Northeast Party House did not disappoint.