New Zealand’s The Checks have had a pretty eventful 8 years together with Ian Broudie producing their debut album touring with R.E.M and The Hives and opening for Oasis. For a group of guys still in their early 20s they’ve already achieved more than most will in an entire career. It was surprising they were only playing to a mid-sized audience at the Annandale on a Thursday night but it in no way meant we got less than their full energy and attention.

Three support bands graced the Annandale stage with Dark Bells having the opening honours. A trio, they played some dark and dirty psych-goth rock with nods to early Cult, Siouxsie and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and some tasty effect-driven pieces that recalled Mogwai. The band looks great with the striking blonde hair of singer/guitarist Teneil Butterfield and the ridiculously low-slung bass of Ash Moss. The sound mix was a little off with the guitar being buried by the drums and bass but you got the sense that there were some great songs lurking amid the clatter and haze, just waiting to get out.

Go Roll Your Bones play swamp-soaked gutter rock with the rawness and attitude that it requires. The hit the stage and drove through a set that at times had the sway and swagger of Jesus Lizard and Birthday Party and then rounded it out with a deconstructed and liberal version of the The Doors’ The Spy that ticked all the right boxes of angst and drama.

Zeahorse on the other hand take the multi-genre approach mixing and combining styles from indie strum to metallic blister and burn – often within the same song. Sometimes this worked in their favour where you felt like you were on a random skip through the last 30 years of alternative music but too often they teased with a melody or groove that was too quickly superseded by another one. Once they can edit themselves and work more to their strengths they will be a damn fine band.

The Checks were almost the odd ones out on their own bill. Gone was the long hair, garage rock and metal of the previous bands and in their place was suits, buttoned shirts and a level of tightness and ‘performance’ that only 8 years of touring and recording can give you. It almost felt like the Annandale stage was too small for the sound of The Checks, especially when they hit their big choruses and dialled up the volume on their larger riffs.

Frontman Ed Knowles possesses a devastating voice that switches between searing scream and uber-melodic singing with consummate ease. His dancing is another matter entirely – all twitches and idiosyncratic jerks and moves that looked like he was dancing wildly on the inside while struggling to pretend he wasn’t.

Musically the band rolled through all the songs that have made them hometown heroes, from their early blues drenched rock to the poppier angles of songs like Ballroom Baby that sounded gloriously like the Bee Gees in Jamaica with it’s contagious falsetto. Elsewhere There Is A Field was a stadium worthy anthem unafraid to go epic and Take Me There easily out jetted Jet with its stop/start bluesy holler.

The Checks were the complete package. Looking the part, sounding fantastic and clearly possessing songwriting abilities that allow them to stand out from the overcrowded indie/rock/pop bottleneck that too often suffers from a lack of depth or longevity. They deserve much wider exposure here in Australia and should be easily filling much larger venues. Let’s hope they return sooner rather than later.

This review was first published on FasterLouder