The Mis-Made warmed the arriving crowd with their take on back to basics hard rock in the vein of L7, Babes in Toyland and even The Runaways when they hit some melodic vocal hooks. Things opened up when they stepped back from the mics and dug deeper into their playing, carving out some dense and pummelling rock n roll.

Cosmic Psychos and Dune Rats are co-headlining the tour and tonight the Psychos were the bridesmaids but that didn’t stop them laying waste to the Manning Bar with their unique punk/pub rock. By the end of their set the floor was soaked in sweat and beer and grins were plastered over faces young and old after a mosh pit formed in the second song and never let up. Bodies soared and surfed high while the trio laid down bedrock rhythms, wah-drenched solos and monstrous fuzz bass, singing about pubs, beer, fuckwits and lost causes. Theirs is a no-frilled Ramones approach with an ever-present larrikin humour and it was their tight, economical playing and the relentless drive to their music that satiated the older fans and Dune Rats fans who were taught a history lesson in Australian rock.

Dune Rats are a band riding a wave at the moment. Tumbling on-stage to an already well-oiled and fervent sea of punters they mixed musicality, dynamics and goofball humour to good effect. The drug references and “I’m so out of it maaan” comments wore thin pretty quickly, as did the “you sick cunts are legends” banter but it was impressive how well they played given their looseness. Bassist Brett Jansch spent most the show wrestling his bass into impossible shapes, leaping and sliding around the stage between gurning and in-jokes. They do stoner garage beach pop well and they’re certainly living it up, their on-stage fun heartily embraced by the heaving masses.

Chris Familton