Mindless Self Indulgence has never taken themselves too seriously. That’s a good thing, because if they did, their live gigs wouldn’t be half as fun as they.

The techno-synth-industrial-whatever punk group pulled their usual act for the crowd, with frontman Jimmy Urine (real name is James Euringer) alternately loving and abusing the adoring crowd.

Before that however, Cerebal Ballzy and The Blackout both made appearances.

Billboard is a nightclub at heart, which made the lack of energy for the opening bands very disappointing. The high energy Cerebral Ballzy came on first, but their fast-paced, loud Brooklyn punk failed to excite, with the majority of the crowd seeming disinterested, and only a few people dancing.

It was a shame, because as members of The Blackout commented, “we thought Melbourne was a party city!” The Welsh group managed to get the Tuesday night crowd a little more riled up.

Their brand of post-hardcore music  – including their 2013 release ‘Start the Party’ and older tracks ‘Save Our Selves’ and ‘Children of the Night’ – is clean, tight, melodic, and very dance-worthy.

Although it was clear that most of the people there didn’t really know who they were, they took it in their stride, bantering their way through the awkward moments and doing their best to get the crowd more pumped up.

The real spectacle, of course, was Mindless Self Indulgence. The New York group hasn’t been down under in a long time, and fans came out of the woodwork to catch this Sidewave. They brought their mohawks, chains and odd headgear, as well as various inflatable props.

The first, most noticeable thing about their stage was the three bass drums in the kit of Jennifer Dunn (more commonly known as Kitty). It turns out that two of the bass drums had very little musical use, and were more for show (they spelt out MSI), and for Jimmy Urine to stand on.

They kicked things off with the classic ‘Shut Me Up’ and displayed the usual Mindless Self Indulgence aplomb – Jimmy Urine let his crotch do the singing on numerous occasions and bassist Lyn-Z showed us why she’s known as “The Back Bending, Bass Playing, Punk Rock Princess.”

Drummer Kitty doesn’t have particularly complex parts, but made up for it with her facial expressions and energy. It was guitarist Steve Righ? (real name Steve Montano) who was the weakest of the band, not doing much past just playing his guitar.

Still, the group caused havoc on stage, with the poor tech guy running on every so often to fix things Urine and Lyn-Z managed to break. The frontman in particular, specialises in dick humour and simultaneously complimenting and flipping off his audiences. Of course, the crowd loved it.

The only exception was when Urine mentioned Heath Ledger. It’s a fact that 99.9% of Australians love the deceased actor, and when Urine yelled that “America killed Ledger,” – it got a bit awkward.

More an indictment of America’s celebrity drug culture rather than a criticism of Ledger in the end, but Urine probably will tone down that kind of talk in the future.

Mindless Self Indulgence ran through all their big hits, including ‘Never Wanted To Dance’, ‘Faggot’, ‘Bring The Pain’ and of course, ‘Stupid MF’. And in true MSI style, Jimmy Urine ushered a young doppelganger, “Old Me”, as well as a cheerleader, to the stage to perform.

In line with his tongue-in-cheek, sardonic attitude, the singer prefaced their encore by telling the audience that they and every band ever are getting paid for the show and encore. “So any band who comes back on stage and looks surprised, they’re full of shit.”

Say what you will about Mindless Self Indulgence, but full of shit they are not.

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