Live Review: Walk The Moon, Yukon Blonde

A line extends all the way from Howler's bandroom and snakes around beside the car park as fans queue up to secure their spot for this sold-out show. Yukon Blonde rile us up early on with their danceable pop-rock grooves filled with catchy hooks delivered at an energetic pace. Having just released their new album On Blonde, the Canadian group are excited to share some of their new material with us tonight. Saturday Night and Como are instant crowd-pleasers and I Wanna Be Your Man has us singing and bouncing along to the alluring, '70s, glam-rock sound.

Walk The Moon are next to charge in with their energetic, uplifting vibes. They assure us that, just like breakfast, their first song Jenny is an important start to the day and it sets the powerful upbeat tempo. Different Colors sums the band up perfectly — they're loud, vibrant and fun; neon paint across their faces, rainbow tattoos on their arms and lead vocalist Nicolas Petricca's pink mohawk shine bright to capture our attention. Their soaring indie pop-rock anthems are bursting with positivity to make us feel alive and in the moment. Walk The Moon empower us with a meditation exercise to trap our negative feelings and push them out and up towards the ceiling — in doing so we are initiated into their tribe of fans. After this, we're not afraid to pump our arms up into the air in support of I Can Lift A Car. Up 2 U is an impressive live track that starts off slow with keyboard synths and builds to an erupting chorus with distorted vocal shouts and a throw-down of trilling guitars that cut loose. Work This Body is their liveliest performance and turns up the energy when tribal drumming and French vocals are brought in. It's the band's first time playing their new songs to an Australian crowd and they receive a great reaction, which makes them feel very welcome. An older track Lisa Baby is dedicated especially to their long-time fans. We do them one last favour and sing the words to their infectious hit Shut Up And Dance.

A surprise encore — a superb cover of The Killers' track All These Things That I've Done — tops off the night before the band end with the emotional Anna Sun. Walk The Moon let us know we won't have to wait too long to see them again with their planned return Down Under scheduled for early next year.