As I enter the upper venue of The Woolly Mammoth on this Friday night, I am welcomed with a stench that reminds of a mixture of sweaty feet and floor-spilled alcohol. This should come as no surprise to me, as I am well aware that The Lost Knights and The Red Beard have already finished their head-and-body-shaking performances. Nonetheless, I had expected less of a body-heat induced sauna, but at least the punk-rockish crowd are seemingly having a great time, whilst awaiting The Getaway Plan with drunken glimmers in their eyes. I’m looking forward to seeing the alternative rock band take the stage, knowing that the band will commence their set at 10 45. Maybe not. By 11 15 I start to feel only a little impatient, as it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the cheesy aroma that sticks to the walls of the venue. Since the background of the stage has already been decorated with band’s new album Dark Horses’ artwork, I continue hoping for their appearance. At last, the band finally takes the stage at 11 25, gathering the previously spread out crowd into one tight spot in front of the stage, which unfortunately also means that the lack of fresh air only grows stronger. Of course, no one else is actually bothered by this, as the stage is so close to the floors of The Woolly Mammoth that members of the audience will be able to breathe in the essence (which I would not recommend at this point) of the entire band. 

The Melbourne based band opens up their set of tonight with a strong, loud and very enthusiastic performance of their hit-song Where the City Meets the Sea. Immediately, the musicians have the undivided attention of their audience, who jump at the lead singers every encouragement to do so. The lead singer plays his guitar with remarkable talent, yet he does not fail to vocally perform from soft and high notes to rocking screams. Whilst the sound equipment does not exactly seem to be functioning at its maximum capacity, over-toning certain instruments at times, and blurring the actually well-defined words of the vocalist, the bands energetic performance does manage to distract from this. The exceptionally all long-haired four piece definitely makes use of this asset, shaking their locks all over the place. My attention is captivated by the five stringed bass, which literally makes the floor shake by inducing music in the audience’s body, basslines pulsating through their every vein.

Of course the band also played a majority of songs from their earlier days, including tracks such as The Reckoning and Shadows off their second studio album, which was released all the way back in 2011. The popularity of these songs is clearly reflected in the uninhabited jumping around of the excited crowd. The band's reunion seems to be going really well, clearly earlier disputes have been put aside and made the band even stronger. The hair flipping performance is only enhanced by the undeniable comfort that the musicians seem to share with each other. The band plays various songs off of Dark Horse making post-hard-core influences on these new songs difficult to ignore, with clear noise-rock elements throughout. The Getaway Plan's instrumental introductions to songs off their recently released album were particularly enjoyable, emphasising the profound tonalities of the bass, guitars and drums individually. 

The Getaway Plan gave the performance tonight their all. I would love to see them again without having to block out the predominant body odours of the preceding audiences, as their performance was clearly derived from a deep passion for their music.

- Tara Zupp