Gig review: Wolfmother

Anyone attending this gig cold might have arrived at the unkind conclusion that Australia's pop cultural landscape is around 40 years behind the rest of the world. Although they're signed to credible Sydney dance label Modular, Wolfmother are a patchwork of influences from the 1970s progressive rock scene – some good, some not so much.

The big hair on display from the quartet, from bubble perms to lank shoulderblade-length mullets, gave us an idea of what we were in for.

Singer Andrew Stockdale demonstrated an impressive, throaty holler which brought to mind Robert Plant in his most gloriously overblown younger days, although despite a creditable Led Zeppelin-style effort to marry old-time English folk and arena rock during Vagabond, there wasn't so much of Plant's old band on display. Instead, the hard-partying sound of Thin Lizzy ran through songs like the debut hit Woman, while the somewhat overblown style of prog rockers like King Crimson infected tracks like Colossal and Dimension.

It was this dynamic that had student rockers dancing and crowd-surfing, while men over 40 wearing Black Sabbath T-shirts noodled away on air guitar at the back. This ability to unite two such disparate audiences was impressive, although many might have secretly found some of the more indulgent songs and passages a little tedious. Had the whole set been played with the precision and power of closer The Joker and the Thief – kicked off by Stockdale's pledge that "we're gonna levitate you up to that balcony" and featuring a chantalong chorus of "we are not going home" – this might have been one of the year's better gigs.