Live Review: The Horrortones, Mad Macka & Panhandler, Brat Farrar, Thee Hugs

Local surfabilly trio Thee Hugs kick things off tonight with the rugby league still being projected onto the screen behind the stage which washes them with moving footballers, but it distracts little from an excellent set of infectious tunes which pour the twang of Morricone through a jagged garage-punk filter. Swamp elements are introduced at times and it's all perfectly primal, the expressive guitars offset flawlessly with ragtag percussion and strange vocal exhortations.

Next up Melbourne outfit Brat Farrar – the recent project of underground rock icon Sam Agostino (Digger & The Pussycats, Kamikaze Trio) – take no prisoners from the get-go, the guitars all angular and discordant and offset by Agostino's throaty rasp plus thick, ropy bass and precision drumming. They cover a variety of moods from melodic to menacing with ease, the propulsive Let's Go Out Again Tonight and the Jawbreaker-esque You Got Me Hanging Around proving set highlights.

You might know local legend Mad Macka best from his punk outfit The Onyas and more recently his bass duties with Cosmic Psychos, but combining with Panhandler he explores more blues-tinged terrain. The five piece – including a sax player and a harp virtuoso – ooze authenticity and you can tell their combined record collections would be worth more than the GDP of a small nation, with the sleazy Same Town and a raucous cover of The Gun Club's Texas Serenade standing out amidst a slew of fine tracks.

Finally it's time for local garage-soul-covers party-starters The Horrortones to play an all-too-rare set in celebration of the French-released 10” vinyl version of the singles boxset they released a couple of years back, and they belt off the rust with a pummeling version of Sam & Dave's You Got Me Hummin'. The trumpet and sax on stage right bring the old school vibe, the rampaging keys of Dan Condon also pointing to yesteryear, but the (at times) eight-piece cover a wide range of eras as evinced by their raucous rendition of Murder City Devils' Boom Swagger Boom which has dapper frontman Pete Collins whirling around the stage like a dervish. Thee O'Jays' wild Livin' For The Weekend is perfectly appropriate for this Friday night party – as is Bobby King's W.A.S.T.E.D. looking around the room a bit – before a mammoth take on the Ike & Tina Turner (via The Saints) classic River Deep, Mountain High ratchets things up even further. The Deadly Snakes' Graveyard Shake finds Collins trading vocals with Julien Hug, and they play to the crowd and introduce the whole band soul-revue style before finishing things off with Sam Cooke's epic Shake and an impromptu encore of the fun-tastic My Pet Rock. They promised a party and a party we got, with a kickarse time had by all and sundry – viva la rock!