Live Review: Something For Kate

No supports and just a ten-minute interval. Otherwise, for the next three hours, we're set to walk the entire gamut of Something For Kate's glorious 20-year career, with the Melbourne trio acting as our musical tour guides for the journey.

We laugh at the infinite amount of bad hairdos Clint Hyndman has wheeled out... (dyed green dreadlocks arguably the worst).

Before we get to the songs though it's time for a little movie. A packed, chatty Tivoli is silenced when Callum Preston's short documentary film on the band whirs into life, the video splicing one-on-one interviews with archival footage from the studio, the stage and the trio's many touring road trips, both domestically and abroad. We agree that Paul Dempsey has mellowed out considerably as the years have progressed; we laugh at the infinite amount of bad hairdos Clint Hyndman has wheeled out during that time (dyed green dreadlocks arguably the worst). Stephanie Ashworth, meanwhile tells us about her first impressions of the original trio, admitting that when she first saw Something For Kate live, while still a member of Sandpit, she thought being in the band would have been horrible. How things change…

After ten-minutes those large-screen faces become stage figures, the trio walking out to a rousing reception, accompanied by touring multi-instrumentalist John Hedigan, and with only a brief greeting and a smile they get straight back to where it all began, playing Subject To Change and Picards Lament off their first EP, 1996's …The Answer To Both Your Questions, before diving into their debut full-length with Roll Credit and Soundczech pulled off '97's Elsewhere For 8 Minutes. During this time Dempsey has ditched the dinner jacket out front and subtly goaded the crowd into singing Happy Birthday to the group, though the many enamoured punters didn't need much encouragement to find their voice.

This opening stanza sets the tone for the rest of the first set, with the four-piece running forwards through their career towards 2012's most recent release, Leave Your Soul To Science. The visuals that flicker on the screen behind them are mostly simple – like the boxes that flash and spin during Big Screen Television – but they match the time when the music was made, a nice extension to the experience. Jerry Stand Up and Say Something both get big responses – a reflection of the success that came with 2001's breakthrough album Echolalia – while rarely played tracks like Hawaiian Robots off 2004 B-sides compilation Phantom Limbs sound just as essential, sometimes even more so, than the bigger singles from the band's canon. Recent jams The Kids Will Get The Money – a tune dedicated to Gina Rinehart – and Survival Expert then round out the first half of the set.

The home leg begins with more refrain that we've seen all night, with Dempsey manning the keys for Back To You before grabbing an acoustic guitar for All The Things That Aren't Good About Scientology, a song he first imagined while walking the streets of Hollywood as a teenager after Something For Kate had cut their debut full-length. Star-Crossed Citizens quickly makes up for the quiet with Steph Ashworth rumbling the room with her bass playing, before a stretch-three of hits, consisting of Déjá Vu, Twenty Years and Monsters, generates massive singalongs from the floor to the balcony.

Dempsey raising his stubby to give heartfelt gratitude to those that have followed the group during the past two decades – especially the guy in the room who is seeing his fiftieth Something For Kate show tonight.

Clint Hyndman has been his usual beast self on the kit all night, working those thick arms relentlessly while grunting and yelling like a tortured man, but he takes the beat to new levels of power during Electricity, which then welcomes in a choice closing brace featuring Like Bankrobbers and Working Against Me, before the band exit stage left to recompose and gear up for an encore. We all know what's coming, but that doesn't make it any less magical, with Dempsey raising his stubby to give heartfelt gratitude to those that have followed the group during the past two decades – especially the guy in the room who is seeing his fiftieth Something For Kate show tonight – before launching into Captain (Million Miles An Hour), a track that still sounds as unique and vital as it did in 1997. Then finally, the person who's been waving the bright orange Pinstripe banner gets their wish, with the band giving an inspired rendition of the track, before the sketched sunshine turns into a flash photo fade-out, the four members sharing a bow to conclude what's been a suitable celebration for one of Australia's finest.