Sydney band Van She rocked into the Empire’s Moon Bar on Sunday night on a wave of public attention from their last self-titled EP. Sound problems in the Moon Bar forced the opening acts back more than an hour so that gave me a chance to tread the boards once more of my old haunt, and to put it lightly The Empire has not changed one bit in all the years I have been going there. Same red and black décor, same young fashionable crowd and staff with just enough new faces to make me realise that time does move on, as do clientele.

After this the upstairs Moon Bar opens and I walk up there to see the first act, Japanese born but Brisbane based Hayato who goes by the name ‘Potato Masta’, who went on to play his funky and eclectic brand of songs from all eras mixed in with his own brand of Japanese rap which made for some weird listening. If I am correct I think I heard him singing Mary had a Little Lamb in Japanese over a Dead Kennedy’s song. As a side note Hayato played in between all the sets introducing them all in his broken ‘Ingerish’.

The first cab/band off the rank was the aptly names ‘Good God’ a three piece consisting of two girls and a guy. I gathered that this was one of their first gigs as they had problems with both a tuned instrument and various sound problems (which plagued every set). Never the less the group of friends they brought with them enjoyed the set enough to put palm to palm at the end of every song. After another 15 minutes of weird Japanese rap over equally weird song choices the next band started.

‘At The Drive In’ then came on, no I mean ‘Sparta’, no I mean ‘The Mars Volta’ actually it was four piece Statue Stature’ who have studied the previously named band videos and had everything down pat. Fuzzy hair-check, screaming to soft vocals-check, bizarre incoherent lyrics-check (tarantula being the only word I could decipher in about 25 minutes). Fair enough the boys could play but the road they are travelling on is well worn. The punters at the front cheered every beat and my leg was shaking, but then again, so was my head.

By now the party people had ventured out from their crypts to experience another night of the Empire Valley Fiesta style. In between sets I ventured down to the Middle bar to sample the trio that was ‘Whiskey Tears’ who were rocking the earlobes of those not taken to upstairs yet. Playing an up-tempo set of danceable beats the hombres switched genres as easily as I could down my vodkas. I arrived to driving beats, but as soon as I settled down to my second drink they had changed tact and has moved onto the Talking Heads classic ‘Psycho Killer’ this was slowly becoming a night of flashback music for me. Now if only someone could come out with a dance version of Iron Maidens ‘Run to the hills’ then it would all be complete.

I went back upstairs to the aural assault that is ‘The Night Crash’. It was explained to me by a fellow patron as ear bleeding music, lucky I had learnt sign language at a young age as this was the only way we could communicate whilst they played. The band consisted of one drummer and one guitarist duelling for ear space and the battle was still waging as this man saved his ears for another day. Even from the safe confines of the Middle Bar deck I could not handle the sadness this band brought to my musical soul. So I went inside to soak in the tunes.

The wheels of steel were being driven by the one and only ‘Aniki’ who by now has the raised the Middle Bar crowd from their couch comforts and had a fair few humping the dance floor like dogs on heat. Again musical history was the theme of the night as I heard the unmistakeable bass lines of early Norman Cook in ‘Dub be good to me’.

The enigma that is ‘Ponyloaf’ then came on with their brand of heavy metal dirty techno. Their music took the crowd by the scruff of the neck and pummelled their collective heads into every wall of the moon bar, and they loved every minute of the pummelling. Unrelenting the every excitable monk hair styled keyboardist gave his best impression of a man un-hinged. This electro synth-driven four piece kept up the pace, gave it their all and the crowd responded accordingly. The electro vocals were a little off putting, but then again they suited the craziness that is Ponyloaf. If you ever want to be freaked out, go and see these guys live.

The main act hit the stage an hour after they were supposed to and the ensuing sound problems that had plagued the other acts had the massed crowd sweating and heaving like a giant human lung trying to breath in a sauna. During the ensuing technical hitches, cat calls of ‘Great facial hair’ from the audience had the boys from ‘Van She’ in stitches. They battled feed back, lack of bass and microphone issues, but true to form they waited to give the now packed to capacity Moon Bar what it wanted – a show to remember. Now by this stage I was almost crushed into the bass amp by an over excited 20yr old in a belted dress with the obligatory fashion matching beer swilling boyfriend, all trying to grab a glimpse of their new found heroes. The first chords of ‘Kelly’ started and like one the crowd bounced to the beat as if born to do so. The start of ‘Mission’ had Matt (Synth/backing vocals) and Michael (Bass) hands raised and clapping in time leaving Tomak (drums) and Nick (lead vocal/guitar) to play while the crowd followed the guys in hand clap unison until the chorus where they all joined in and the house came crashing down like an 80s electro pop fantasy. From that moment the boys has the audience in the palm of their hand and with the finish of every song they received massive applause and whistling. They played their whole self titled EP plus trialled three unheard of tracks from the new album, which will be out early next year. Even though the sound stuff ups marred an otherwise good night in the Moon Bar of the Empire I would have to say I left happy for I had finally seen the power pop machine that is Van She.