Live Review: Tired Lion, Tiny Little Houses, Dear Seattle

Dear Seattle warmed up the crowd at the small and intimate Hudson Ballroom with their '90s grunge-inspired indie-rock. The four-piece from Sydney's Northern Beaches performed their just-released single Afterthought, with the crowd loving the heavier chorus.

Melbourne's Tiny Little Houses took to the stage and played a great set (which included a few tracks off their forthcoming album) led by the unique voice of Caleb Karvountzis. It's rare for a crowd to be equally as excited for the support as the headliner, but as the guys left the stage the crowd cheered "One more song, one more song" — which Karvountzis succeeded in turning into a "Tired Lion" chant.

Tired Lion drummer Ethan Darnell came on stage to kick off the last set of their Cinderella Dracula tour with Figurine. With something else booked at the venue straight after, there was little time for onstage banter and the Perth band powered through their set for the most part. Frontwoman Sophie Hopes did pause to take a photo with fans though and noted that they weren't used to playing on such a tiny stage as she kept bumping into bassist Nick Vasey.

Their set was flawless and there was real energy in the room as the crowd sang, danced and moshed along to hard-hitting tracks like Suck, I Don't Think You Like Me and Agoraphobia. They finished up with their new track Cinderella Dracula, and the crowd shouted "Oh, dada, dadada, dadada, dadada/Dadada, dadada, dadada, da" along with Hopes.

Demands for an encore were met as Hopes put down her guitar to bring Tiny Little Houses' Karvountzis back on stage — and pointed out they were wearing each other's band's shirts before Matt Tanner launched into the guitar riff of Blur's Song 2. Crowd surfing and a cover of a classic '90s rock hit made for a great end to a great gig.