Is it wrong to blame a headlining band for the pitfalls of the acts that open for them? With over a decade in the game, it's safe to say that Yellowcard – alongside other pop-punkers of their ilk – have inspired a new wave of such bands, but inspiration and derivation are different beasts. With that in mind, openers The Never Ever offer nothing new to the power-punk-pop vibe, but looked damn stoked doing what they do and it's an infectious feeling.

Heroes For Hire were up next and the constant slew of support slots they've garnered in recent times has helped the band strive for a bigger live show; frontman Brad Smith split the crowd down the middle and urged them to sing along in the bridge of old favourite Bright Lights In Paradise and climbed the speaker stack in set closer Secrets, Lies And Sins. But, just as their songs seem anchored in the juvenile pop-punk of their youth (replicated here complete with American accents), so too was their banter. A mannequin dressed up as a girl and brought on stage to be presented to recently single guitarist Duane Hazell with the exclamation by Smith, 'We got him this bitch', revealed a whole new low for tact.

At the other end of the spectrum, Yellowcard are gracefully revealing their age, from the moment they hit the stage they are pleasant, polite, damn excited and, admittedly, a little tired after a performance that afternoon at Fat As Butter. It seems wrong to lump them in with the nostalgia trip currently taking over live music – for one, they've released two new albums in the last 18 months – but it seems they may have picked up a setlist trick or two from fellow Fat As Butter acts Wheatus and Eiffel 65, as the set was jammed with old hits (Light Up The Sky, Believe, Ocean Avenue…). Not that the near-capacity crowd seem to mind. It's been five years since Yellowcard headlined a show down under, but you'd be hard-pressed to guess as much the way the crowd erupted when third song Breathing kicked off.

The band are ridiculously tight and have a well oiled stage show; a drum solo from the awe-inspiring Longineu Parsons, a solo acoustic rendition of Sing For Me, followed by Empty Apartment – with the band rejoining frontman Ryan Key on stage at the bridge to bring it home in style.

With only a few newer tracks played this evening – Here I Am Alive, Always Summer – a cautious promise from Key that they'll be back next year to give a proper live taste of new album, Southern Air, is a very enticing one.