Live Review: Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Kirin J Callinan

Kirin J Callinan's opening set was fascinating, with the innovative musician staring fair down the barrel of the incoming audience, eyes wide. His bizarre stage manner and unnervingly deep voice was taken awkwardly by those in attendance and, despite being extremely desirable to many, his tunes that verge too far from a recognisable rhythm fall a bit flat. Tonight, there's a pretty obvious divide between those who love his work and those who struggle to understand it.

Similarly, New York City's Yeah Yeah Yeahs are an acquired taste, guitarist Nick Zinner, drummer Brian Chase and frontwoman Karen O delivering their excellent live post punk, indie rock and dance collaboration to a sold-out Metro Theatre who can't get enough. Karen O's beautifully uncouth stage manner is a mix between improvised grinding and energetic leaping; rawly bearing herself to the ever-hungry YYYs army, ready to feast. Spitting water fountains around the stage, O joyfully rocked out a variety of tunes weighted heavily in the band's first two records, Fever To Tell and Show Your Bones, Rich exploding the trio (also joined by keyboardist David Pajo) into the Sydney sideshow.

Fans lapped up typically popular tunes Gold Lion, Heads Will Roll and Zero, but it was the reflective nature and dance beat of Phenomenon and garage intensity of Date With The Night that got the faithful sharing a singalong with the band's figurehead, who spent a portion of time sucking on her mic while screaming the shit out of it. O just didn't stop, taking a brief breather for Skeletons before the band's usual introverted performance of Maps was replaced with a speedy rendition, maintaining the set's fast pace.

Probably the most exciting take-home were the three awesome new tracks shared with the Aussie crowd, a shredding shortcut into forthcoming full-length Mosquito. What one would assume is the title track was played early on, and rightfully met with a huge response; the upbeat and catchy lyrics had fans wailing along after short exposure to the chorus. The band played the sneak peeks with such infectious joy, the sound fitting firmly into the rhythm of their first and second records.

It just proves that some things will never really change: Yeah Yeah Yeahs will keep packing out Australian venues, they will continue to release rocking new albums and Karen O will forever smash her mic into smithereens to conclude the night.