EVERYBODY who had the pleasure of being inside the Civic Theatre on Tuesday night knows they witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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We won't be seeing Welsh indie rockers Catfish & The Bottlemen gracing the stages of Hunter Street's beautiful 1929 Georgian Revival theatre again.
Based on this show, Catfish & The Bottlemen should be playing arenas. And they have been in the UK since 2016 when they filled the Wembley Arena.
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If they ever return to the Hunter you suspect Catfish will be at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre, or even headlining a winery gig.
Over the course of three albums - The Balcony (2014), The Ride (2016) and The Balance (2019) - the boys from the northern Wales seaside town of Llandudno have refined an anthemic brand of typically British indie-rock.
While their albums are good, albeit stubbornly safe, as a live act the four-piece are explosive.
The Newcastle show was one of just four Splendour In The Grass sideshows on Catfish's Australian tour and their only non-arena gig. So naturally the anticipation was feverish.
Adelaide two-piece Fyrd Byrd opened the night with their distorted garage-punk to a mostly empty theatre. Guitarist-vocalist Joshua Samtré channelled Billie Joe Armstrong and even dusted off Green Day's Brain Stew, but drummer Daniella Breeze was the real star.
Her hypnotic stick work was a flurry of wrists and forearms and almost compensated for Fyrd Byrd's lack of songs.
Catfish entered the stage to The Beatles' heaviest moment, Helter Skelter. It perfectly summed up the ensuing 90 minutes and 18 songs.
The audience had raised out of their seats by the first chorus of the opening song Long Shot and there they remained, singing their lungs out.
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Frontman Ryan "Van" McCann played the role of the conductor, constantly shifting his microphone stand around the stage as he played rhythm guitar.
It led to some comical moments when the teetering microphone threatened to upend, causing the 26-year-old McCann to test his flexibility by stretching down to sing into the mic.
McCann has outgrown some of his early-career awkwardness to become a true rock showman in the vein by The Strokes' Julian Casablancas or The Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner. The swooning young women in the balcony seats could attest to that.
One excited bloke even ripped off his shirt to the displeasure of a theatre usher, who desperately attempted to get the man's bare chest covered.
Besides a few brief song introductions, there was little stage banter from McCann. Catfish meant business.
There were no complaints with the set list. Catfish & The Bottlemen delivered all the hits. Favourites like Kathleen and Soundcheck came out early and lit the fuse.
The floor of the Civic Theatre even started to give when Pacifier's roaring intro kicked in. But midway through Catfish brought down the mood and carried the audience through a drawn-out detour on new track Conversation.
This gave lead guitarist Johnny Bond a chance to shine with his soaring solos and snatch the limelight briefly from McCann.
However, Catfish boast so many anthems in their catalogue that the mood was never sedate for long.
The mass singalongs came thick and fast towards the finale in 2all, 7 and Cocoon before a the encore of Tyrants.
It's hard to see the upward trajectory of Catfish & The Bottlemen diminishing. When you can produce anthemic indie rock like this you're always gonna draw a crowd.
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