Gold tinsel winked colours in the blue light behind the stage as the members of Millions leaned casually over their instruments before their gig, surrounded by loud reggae music and a chatting crowd.

Jumping into their first song, “Champagne”, with a thumping drumbeat that crawled up the audiences’ chests, Millions impressed the mostly-seated crowd with their trained talent.

Dressed completely in black, the musicians fell behind a smoke-machine haze and nervously promoted their album between songs. After awkwardly joking with the quiet crowd, Millions’ lead singer introduced their new single “Nineteen”.

The catchy quiet rock style of their songs gradually enticed the shy crowd to stand, and an enthusiastically well-covered version of The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” lead the band into their final three songs.

The crowd began to gather in a semi-circle around the stage, waiting for the feature act of the night.

Recently confirmed for The Falls Festival in Lorne and Marion Bay, Oh Mercy have quickly earned their place in this prestigious festival, having released both their two full-length in the past two years alone.

Oh Mercy wandered onto the stage, with a recorded reading of The Odyssey by Homer trailing the members. His gold jacket embroidered with the words “DEEP HEAT”, lead singer Alexander Gow rolled into the title track of the tour, and followed it with the entrancingly deep-voiced song, “My Man”.

Announcing that they were going to change the setlist to include another song, Oh Mercy ricocheted between the songs from their shy, introspective album Great Barrier Grief and their struttingly confident album Deep Heat.

While the songs from the former album leaked narratives, their new songs saw the crowd dancing along with the strumming guitars and beating drums.

The song “Fever” was preceded by the drunken advice “if you’re ever feeling like shit, don’t be.”

Self-decorated in strands of tinsel, Gow invited the audience to block their ears if they weren’t a fan of reggae music before playing their song “Still Making Me Pay”. Gow then went on to invite the members of Millions back on stage to aid in the instrumental build of their highly anticipated song “Drums”.

This track was the stand-out of the entire set, and was reflected in the growing enthusiasm of the crowd as the energetic band members from both Millions and Oh Mercy bounced dangerously around each other.

Ending the set with a rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s “State Trooper” amid blinding strobe lighting, Oh Mercy thanked the audience with sincere gratitude and said goodbye. The intoxicated singer followed the band off the stage, leaving the audience with the words “see you next time, I hope.”

Initially this set seemed extremely calculated, with predictability spilling underneath the surface of each song. Though not necessarily a bad thing – and it seemed to work well for the young band – it drew away from the overall appeal of the set.

However, as the night drew on, this practised appearance dissipated and the musicians began immersing themselves more completely in the music they were producing. The overall effect providing a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

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