Hype can be a poison arrow sometimes with excess praise heaped on a band by high profile dictators of taste. In the case of Vivian Girls, their rise to fame has polarised many. Some people love their hazy droning jangle pop that filters detuned girl-group harmonies through garage rock and indie while others dismiss them as tuneless, repetitive and atonal. Their Australian tour gave us all a chance to make an informed decision based on their live performance, often the best indicator of a band’s form.

Dead Farmers and Circle Pit proved to be well chosen supports, both trading in similar aural aesthetics to the main act.

Hawnay Troof from Oakland, California changed things up with his ‘one man and a laptop’ set. Dark and lo-fi electronic beats backed his energised songs and a stage performance that included monitor leaps, forward rolls and Michael Jackson poses. His hyper sound was similar to Dan Deacon’s musical madness and ADD audio. A bratty psychedelic hip hop streak added the party vibe and though highly danceable, his set sadly left the audience strangely unmoved.

Vivian Girls didn’t take long to set up and launch into their set. The trio of Cassie Ramone, Ali Koehler and Kickball Katy look fantastic on stage. Ramone with her female Cobain blonde hair, flannel, denim and tights; Katy as the amazonian bass player, with quirky geek tattoos and Koehler the power and backbone of the sound in her her Mouskouri specs.

They pretty much played all of their two albums, Vivian Girls and the just released Everything Goes Wrong. The songs came thick and fast with minimal pauses before the next track was counted in quickly… 1,2,3,4. The most surprising thing about their show was how fantastic the songs sounded live. On record they drift and sound a little distant. In person they were harder, punchier and felt more alive. When I’m Gone rocked and rolled and it should have had the crowd pogoing along.

The great live sound also highlighted what great players the trio are. Ramone’s guitar playing is economical yet she adds some lovely melodic chord changes that surf below her sing-song vocals. Katy bounces around grinning and playing some wonderful and fast basslines. Behind the kit Koehler is an image of concentration, never slowing and always pushing the songs forward.

The harmonies on songs like Wild Eyes and the Primitives sounding Where Do You Run To showed that vocals are a strength to their sound, not a weakness as some of  their detractors claim.

The end of their show saw Katy taking over the drums, Cassie switching to bass and Ali getting the chance to stand up and strum guitar astride the speaker stack on the side of the stage. It highlighted their sense of fun and willingness to entertain both themselves and the audience.

The crowd was highly appreciative but it wasn’t the sort of rapturous response that the band should have received. Perhaps the punters were still making up their mind… I for one was convinced.