Live Review: FBi Radio's 9th Birthday Party

FBi's ninth birthday was sold out by the time that doors opened and, even early in the evening, each stage seemed packed. Sydney's premier music community radio station brought together some of the city's most noteworthy acts. From the huge, cinematic art rock sounds of Charge Group, to the neat, strung-out indie rock/pop tunes of Sures, to the ethereal electronic noises of the increasingly notorious Bon Chat, Bon Rat, the line-up demonstrated the ways in which FBi Radio has supported and invested in music of all genres.

Charge Group have enormous scope to their music; like rooms you can get lost in, their sound seems to expand to fill the space. The band has this incredible ability to weave really strong, gorgeous guitar and violin lines to create a whole spectrum of emotion. On tracks with vocals, the grand, full voice works with the violin elements to lend a kind of tragic, timeless air to the band's music. There is a strange cocktail of sounds here: whilst tracks like The Gold Is Gone are full of this huge, cinematic aura, tracks like Run – full of gritty guitar lines, plucked violin and shouted vocals – are a little darker and a littler dirtier.

Sures are an up-and-coming indie pop/rock band. This band are progressively developing an interesting sound – luxuriant, bubbling melodies, with these spaced-out, pushed back rhythms. Jonas Nicholls' vocals have an enjoyable, melodic quality and the band's lyricism is the dreamy, verging on bizarre stuff of '60s garage pop. However, they have a tendency towards quite formulaic, two-dimensional songwriting, which seems something of a pity when this band without doubt has the talent to break the mould a little more.

Bon Chat, Bon Rat, by contrast, are doing something otherworldly, completely bizarre and, in the end, unique. With driving, offbeat rhythms and ghostly, high-pitched vocals, accompanied by crazy, distorted keys, it's a wonder that this band manage to pack in audiences like they do. Yet there's also a kind of alien beauty to the sparse, sonic landscapes they create. The band draw on deep, synthesised club beats, strange organ sounds and plaintive vocals. Their tracks are not anthemic, but they're also not predictable; Bon Chat Bon Rat are ambitiously developing a sound no one has really heard before.

FBi's Discotheque stage seemed like the kind of place my parents might have hung out in the '70s, with egg-shaped chairs, flashing lights and plenty of purple plastic. This space played host to a collection of DJs “about-town” – guys like Kato & Bad Ezzy, Future Classic DJs and Shantan. This room was completely empty during the early parts of the evening, with many of the bands clashing with the DJs' hour-long sets. As the night wore on and the stages hit capacity, it became difficult to move between stages and punters were told around 11pm that if they left the venue, they may not be able to get back in. Judging by the queue at the door, the Discotheque stage may have suffered.

The driving beats and strange, underwater sounds of Fishing led to some wild, devil-may-care dancing. Their tracks controlled the crowd with ease: they lurched from these slow, meditative tracks, with steady, staccato beats and twinkling, frail melodies – which chilled the crowd right out – to these urgent, frenetic tracks, with heavy, driving drum beats and wild, fast-paced lyrics.

Catcall was a revelation. Catherine Kelleher is crazy, sexy and diminutive by turns; her unashamedly pop tunes seem to take over her. She jumped around, danced as though no one was watching and curled into a ball onstage during the set. The drum pad, the driving beats, the distinctively pop lyrics: Catcall does it all so unselfconsciously, with such a level of conviction that it is difficult not to like.

Moonbase Commander began his set through a raucous call for encores, saying “Hello? I'm behind you... this guy in the corner.” It was a kind of cute start to what was to be a sonically interesting, experimental kind of set. The tension in the air was high – the “super secret headliner” was about to be revealed – and so Moonbase Commander did an excellent job of dissipating it, at least until he saw fit to play a kind of cloying love ballad. This seemed to bring the crowd down a little.

At the moment of truth, Dappled Cities seemed to appear out of nowhere – admittedly, there had been rumours circulating throughout the evening, but this reviewer hadn't wanted to believe them for fear of disappointment. This band is the perfect example of indie rock done right: neat, tight instrumentals and the kind of emotive lyrics that can be shouted back to the band. They had the venue at capacity, with at least 200 people bopping up and down to the band's decade-long back catalogue. These guys are professionals. Veterans of the Sydney music scene, Dappled Cities were the perfect choice to round out an evening that emphasised the incredible nature of the music that is coming out of Sydney today.