Secret Birds kick things off tonight, with a set based around their Peace Forest release, all Arabic-tinged pysch-rock. The current iteration of the band boasts an impressive line-up, and the music has some wonderful moments, but tonight doesn’t feel like they’re quite on the mark, with beats and loops falling out of synch on occasion. It’s still an enjoyable show though, and the final few minutes as the band fade out gradually in a haze of reverb is a particular highlight.

I’m a little worried while waiting for No Anchor to start. The bass in Secret Birds had seemed a bit overloud, how would the venue cope with two basses? Fortunately, my worries are unfounded and the mix is pretty near perfect. No Anchor make the most of it too, putting together one of the best, most controlled, sets I’ve seen from them. Ian Rogers seems in particularly good spirits, bantering with the crowd between songs and thrashing about during tracks. When they announce barely fifteen minutes in that it’s their last song, it seems a real shame to cut short such a great set, but the final track is epic, taking them out past thirty minutes with a perfect slice of doom-rock. Talking to people between sets, it’s clear that No Anchor have earned themselves a lot of new fans with their performance tonight.

Any thought of Mono being overshadowed tonight is swept away within the first few minutes however. Opening with Ashes In The Snow, the first track on their last album, Hymn to the Immortal Wind, delicate guitar picks give way quickly to distorted tremolo and as the music swells, the crowd stands rapt. The amazing guitar work of the opener gives way to the pretty and much gentler Follow The Map, with bassist Tamaki Kunishi moving over to the piano for the short piece.

Masters of the gradual build, Mono showcase their classical side as they slowly launch into the next track, the beautiful Burial At Sea, and the quiet beginning is stunning. At their Melbourne show, Mono will be playing with an orchestra, but it sounds like they’ve already got the string section hidden somewhere on stage. When the volume and distortion kick in though, it becomes transcendent and I can’t keep a goofy smile from spreading across my face.

Never a visual band, particularly, there’s still a strong sense that they’re deeply invested in their music and in their performance. As Pure As Snow ramps up, lead guitarist Takaakira Goto waves his arm like a conductor’s baton in spare moments, and he and Yoda thrash their heads wildly to the music. When the track concludes, the already appreciative crowd erupts into applause: long, thunderous and celebratory. As though they’d wanted to cheer for the whole song, but couldn’t bring themselves to interrupt the music.

The setlist now turns to earlier albums, Sabbath from One More Step and Halcyon from Walking Clouds slowing things down and soothing the ears, before exploding once again, as Goto leaves his seat to rock out, drawn upwards by the music. The sound at the Hi-Fi can be a little hit or miss, but twice now, Mono have shown just what the venue is capable of when hosting a band with a perfectly crafted sound. At all times, they sound bigger than a four piece and it’s almost hard to understand how they coax the level of detail and complexity from so few instruments.

Closing with Everlasting Light, drummer Yasunori Takada waits patiently behind his kit as the music swells around him, and as the crescendo arrives he finally joins in and proves just how impressive a drummer he is, the sense of restraint amidst the chaos palpably holding the music together. The end of the track shows the classical influence on Mono’s compositions again, and when the final drum-roll builds, it can't be mistaken as anything but the final movement of tonight’s symphony. As the last note fades away, the crowd again explodes, loud and enthused, and the band walks off stage, smiling and drenched in sweat.

I almost didn’t go tonight, due to illness, but I’m deeply glad I did. Mono are an impressive recorded band, but live they reach a level that few others can hope to match, playing with virtuosity and emotion and giving us easily one of the performances of the year.

Words and photos by Sky Kirkham