With noise and punk being the tones of the night, opening act Raw Prawn knew their role. The four-piece strummed and hummed their way through an abrasive and suitably raw 45 minutes. Their sound, reminiscent of Velvet Underground and Stooges-style protopunk, could hardly be to everyone's tastes and the monotone vocals did begin to grate by the set's close. Though the oddly catchy hook laid here and there helped the band's presence become something a little more than generic.
Royal Headache, however, were on fire. With what seemed like nearly half the crowd arriving for them, Sydney's finest punk staple belted their way through a blistering set of tight, aggressive and noisy punk rock. Soon shirtless singer Shogun is easily one of the most charismatic and ironically charming frontmen in Australian music, crooning the blues. The storytelling nature of the songs shone, despite being beautifully masked behind punchy and aggressive punk grooves. Despite the noise and (possibly ironic) punk posturing, this band are pure fun and ever essential to Sydney's live scene.
Kicking into high gear with new song Electric as opener, The Men wasted no time making the GoodGod stage theirs. Noise and fuzz were turned up to full as the band rocked through new tunes, classics and some half of their masterful 2012 Open Your Heart LP. Even relatively calmer songs such as Candy take on a new, fuzzier form on stage. They show it on the record, but they show it off live; The Men know exactly how to get the most out of a song. Drag it out, dirty it up, belt through it. There's little argument against the band's recorded power, but its now obvious to the lucky and hearing-damaged crowd that The Men are designed for the stage.
