Rumours surrounding the end of Redding natives Does It Offend You, Yeah? have been swirling the mill since their energetic performance at this year’s Splendour in the Grass festival. With a break-up seemingly imminent after lead singer James Rushent less than jovial comments regarding the future of the band on local radio, most fans were remembering the good ol’ days. And, if ever lucky enough to see this band live, you would totally appreciate why.

Dingy in the coolest of ways, with enough smoke machine haze to suit the darkest corner of any blue light disco, The Prince of Wales proved a fitting back-drop for one of the more highly anticipated sideshows of the Splendour line up. The night kicked off with an energy-packed set from the Melbourne group Northeast Party House. Even if the Melbourne freeze had immobilised your senses in the entry line, these boys packed enough synthy beats to warm the chill.

Following were the Purple Sneaker DJs – scratch that, DJ; notably the impeccably skilled Randall Stagg, who blasted us with one of the most enjoyable sets in a long, indie while. With samplings from Martin Solveig to Tag Team, Randall closed on an energy packed crescendo that landed with Adrian Lux’s Teenage Crime.

By this stage of the night, the room was as revved-up as a bunch of staffies at the local park. A moment later, a silhouette of some backstage acrobatics proved to be Does It Offend You, Yeah? dramatically stretching while sharing a few yarns pre-stage. No strangers to hype, I’m sure they didn’t mind heckles from some impatient bastards in the crowd, my favourite being, “Hurry the fuck up!”

And then it began. DIOY commenced with a brilliant rendition of the grimy, effervescent The Wrestler and soon the crowd was reduced to a few hundred or so bouncing, jumping kids, smiling at those next to them. This was fun. And it lasted the entirety of the show.

DIOY know how to keep their true fans happy, and in an attempt to weed out the diehards amongst us, Rushent proclaimed at one stage, “Okay, we want to know who’s been with us from the start, this is the first song we wrote”, before blasting us with a lovely track that I had no idea about. It did have amazing bass though, so all was well.

A legendary rendition of Nirvana’s Aneurysm, respectfully different but still entertaining, had the crowd suitably awed, as did killer punk-esque vocals with some heavy guitar riffs to match. A much slower rendition of the smash hit Dawn of the Dead was an appropriate near end to a great show. Hopefully, contrary to popular belief, these crowd pleasers will be around for a while longer. Yeah?