Live Review: The Mavis's

As The Mavis's took to the stage in Adelaide for the first time in nearly two decades, a small but enthusiastic crowd gathered - including a young couple dressed in unicorn onesies and others who had travelled from interstate to be here.

Singer Matt Thomas was full of energy and was dressed like he had just come from the gym, his sister Becky Thomas looked glorious in a figure-hugging mirror-ball dress and guitarist Nick Gill was preceded by a bushranger beard that could host small forest animals. The original trio were joined on stage by Matthew Sigley from The Earthmen on bass (about time that that group reunited) and a male drummer who is clearly not original drummer Andrea Vendy (no explanation was given for her absence).

They kicked off with Snow White Line, the opening track from the band's classic Pink Pills album reminding us that the band re-formed in order to tour the 20th anniversary of that record. Up next was Does It Matter? and Lever.

The Mavis's released a number of great pop songs in a few short years in the mid-to-late 1990s and tonight they managed to squeeze all of the favourites in. Box from the band's 1996 debut album Venus Returning was a standout, as was the magnificent Cry, despite Matt not quite hitting the high notes as well as he used to. Naughty Boy was amazing, while Thunder was the perfect example of how well the siblings' vocals blend together.

"You're witnessing a live rehearsal," joked Matt towards the end of the night, highlighting the fact that the group had only held one practice session before commencing the tour. Although only three shows in, the band was in fine form.

Complaints about early morning flights to get here were offset by stories of recent fashion emergencies (boob-tube gaffer-tape rescues in Queensland) and memories of Becky playing tambourine on stage with The Whitlams at an Adelaide uni gig many, many years before.

After an hour the group retired from the stage, returning with Supa Star, which Becky told us was a song about River Phoenix, and the pure pop of Happiness was a great finale.

It was so good to see these guys on stage again after so long. "We're back. And we'll be back," hinted Becky at the end of the night, reminding us that they have just released Beaches, an 'accidental' new CD of demos and previ​ously unreleased material.