It's a rather shitty night tonight, blindly walking through the drenched park to the Brisbane Powerhouse for Open Frame Festival's highlight set featuring none other than U.S. oddities Xiu Xiu, returning back to our shores for the first time in nearly two years. It is clear that folks are keen, with many having already arrived well before the unusual (well unusual for a Thursday in Brisbane) start time of 9:30pm. But while they are back in the same venue, this this is by no means a repeat performance.

Kicking things off is the rather appropriate Rites Wild who scored the support slot for the whole East Coast. While Stacey Wilson’s setup is significantly smaller in comparison to the headline act, the sound isn’t - with a sizable backdrop of expansive reverb/delay laced depressive electronica. The tracks really lure you in and as much of a cliché as that sounds, it is almost like a severe drug addiction consuming your life for several months and when you re-surface you cant recognize how long you have been stuck living that way, with drum machines, synth-organ lashings and barely distinguishable vocal melodies still stuck in your mind like an aged war veterans flashbacks. It worked well as a support that could have also easily worked well as a headlining slot.

A relatively quick turn-around sees another world form within the room, seeing a seemingly relaxed setting turn into a point of intimidation as Jamie Stewart takes the stage to asphyxiate you with Xiu Xiu. Joining Stewart tonight is Tokyo born and raised improv-based percussionist Shayna Dunkleman whose setup tonight is incomprehensible, taking up half the stage and all of which is used, delivering a roomier feel as its partially mic’d up cymbals crash unaffected right in front of you and for the most part really works and contributes something different to the mix. Stewart, on the other hand, is seated for the whole show and ventures between synthesizer, guitar and a rather pretty looking auto harp amongst other things throughout the show.

With the room dead silent, the atmosphere is wildly intense with the set focusing largely on dynamics and interplay between Stewart and Dunkleman. It is hard to pick up on tracks as almost all (including most of the lyrics) is completely changed up from record tonight, paving the way for a truly unique experience. Latest album Always is largely featured and the songs played are possibly the easiest to recognise to their original form. Always opener Hi is delivered in a more dissonant way in comparison to its electronic tad upbeat maze which is what most of the tracks tonight are delivered like, while I Luv Abortion seems as if Stewart has some kind of ants in his pants - sporadically delivering the short track in half the time as the original, in typical assault fashion.

It is seemingly a world of extremes on all angles with Stewart, resembling this intense troubled figure with his cold stare and delicate to insane vocals, all the while his appearance and mannerisms seeming somewhat innocent, his child-like wit, his coloured socks and converse sneakers rocking around on his chair. During perhaps one of the more controversial Xiu Xiu tracks Support Our Troops, Oh! Stewart pulls out a slingshot and shoots nuts from his pocket to a gong on the other side of the room in between the newly lyrically improvised sections then shortly after turns things up with a blaring distorted theremin. It is the recently reissued The Air Force track Buzz Saw that really resonates with Dunkleman’s multi-stick percussion hitting across the room as Stewart repeats the songs tagline ‘I’m not like that’ excessively under an ever-changing musical lead.

No encore is given and it takes a bit before the audience feels confident enough to speak again. In one of the more interesting shows of this year for Brisbane Xiu Xiu delivered something truly original and simply captivating. If the band were to continue as Stewart and Dunkleman it would be a step in the right direction as the two’s styles really mesh and with this collaboration delivered something above and beyond what was expected.