As we prepare to farewell Australia’s most loved industry stalwarts in September, music’s hottest musical prospect, The Temper Trap continue to lay the foundations in positioning themselves as one the nation’s premier live acts.

Fresh from a number of international festival appearances including Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, V Festival and a UK headline tour playing to in excess of 35,000 people, the band have returned to kick of its much anticipated sold out headline tour of Australia.

Opening the show with thundering instrumentals and opening bars of ‘Rest’, the appreciative crowd welcomed the modest and unassuming musicians to the stage.

Clearly overjoyed to be back home, and backed by an effective LED backdrop, the band worked though the entire track listing of its 2009 release ‘Conditions’, including singles ‘Fader’ and ‘Down River’ and introduced a couple of new tracks into the mix, including the impressive ‘Rabbit Hole’, effortlessly highlighting the versatility of front man Dougy Mandagi’s vocal range and depth of the bands musical ability.

Performed live, even lesser appreciated tracks from the album were given a new lease of life and provided an opportunity for the audience to reconnect with what it essentially a consistently strong collection of songs.

2010 APRA award winning and well received ‘Sweet Disposition was surprisingly dropped early in the set catching a large number of the female contingent off guard, and resulted in a frenzied rush to get as close as possible to the stage for a mass sing along.

Mandagi joined with drummer Lorenzo Sillitto on numerous occasions to pound the skins, at one point soaking them with bottled water and pounding them to create a spectacular visual dimension to the performance.

During the encore Mandagi engaged the crowd to encourage support of the bands preferred charity ‘Buzz Off’ supporting research into the prevention of Malaria, before closing out the evening with a ripping rendition of crowd favourite The Science of Fear.

Reviewed by d-moose