Live Review: The Laurels, Keep On Dancin's, Cobwebbs

It is a small crowd that sees opening act Cobwebbs kick out their wares, and the stragglers miss out on what is a deliciously shambolic set. It seems that every live performance seems to get further swathed in feedback and dirge, delving into Crystal Stilts territory at times, and the dirtier they sound the stronger they are. There are some slight issues with sound, and vocalist Sam Wightman fills out the downtime with droll banter and crowd-baiting, which only heightens the appeal. A new song is aired, but it's Ice Melter that seals the deal.

Keep On Dancin's are next up, and as always they deliver a solid set, the quartet sticking predominantly to material from their excellent The End Of Everything album. The band is expert at creating a melancholic claustrophobia, yet it's the urgent surf dirge of Hewitt Eyes and dark crawler Your Love Is Mine that really captures the imagination tonight. There are some Lenny Kravitz references, along with Yuri Johnson's cheeky opening of Are You Gonna Go My Way?, but it's quickly back to business.

It takes a couple of chords of Black Cathedral to herald Sydney kids The Laurels as a new voice on the Australian music scene. Here to celebrate their much-awaited debut album Plains, the four-piece launch into a set that leaves nothing to chance, conjuring a wall of sonorous noise the likes of which the Beetle Bar has never witnessed. As far as stage performance goes it remains minimal, the three boys content on strangling their instruments and staring at their feet. It is up to drummer Kate Wilson to offer some visual connection, her incessant drumming a centrepoint, even though the sound is uncharacteristically drowned out the further one is from the stage. Yet it is the inherent strength of the songs on display that truly resonates. Piers Cornelius and Luke O'Farrell's alternating vocals are another effective selling point, offering further diversity to these new tracks. The dueling guitar sound provides one of the fullest shoegaze washes seen outside of the Mother Country, Tidal Wave proving to be particularly huge, whilst punkier stabs like Changing The Timeline show that that the band have a darker side. Connor Hannan anchors everything, his basslines the centrifugal force that every other element swirls out from.

The true mastery of the band is in that wash of noise though, and they sweep all and sundry away into a psychedelic swell, crushing down on the crowd until they are one and the same.