Live Review: The Getaway Plan, Red Beard, Us Or Them

Sydneysiders Us Or Them were stoked to see that so many people had turned up to support them at their third ever show. However, inexperience was against them and they didn't quite hit the mark with their set, their melding of funk, heavy metal and electronica coming off as clumsy and unengaging.

Fortunately, Red Beard injected some energy and sass into their set, convincing earlycomers that their punctuality was worth it. Their unique sound mix of indie, electro and heavy rock had a nice groove to it. They pulled out a cover of Gym Class Hero's Cupid's Chokehold that the crowd lapped up, along with originals One Love and Fox Tale.

Starting their set with newbie Landscapes was a little underwhelming, but The Getaway Plan redeemed themselves by delivering Streetlights second, prompting the crowd to start a moshpit during the breakdown. The rest of their set followed much the same pattern of new song, old song, leading to constant highs and lows within the set. 

It was evident that most of the crowd had turned up just for the old stuff. Punters danced and screamed their hearts out to New Medicine, Shadows and Ashes/A Different Kind Of Mess). Treating us to 'never played' old track The New Year, the band enlisted the help of their 'best friend' Mark to fill out the screaming vocals.

Out of the tracks off Dark Horses, Battleships was a highlight and was one of the better performed new tracks, with Matthew Wright's vocals sounding stretched and not yet as comfortable in the other new tracks.

Sleep Spindles ended the set, with the crowd not letting the boys leave without encoring with classic track Where The City Meets The Sea, which, although well-intentioned, just seemed like an easy way to end an unimpressive set and average performance.