Chilly nights are always warmed with the promise of lush hip-hop and electronica, and my expectations were high for this one to both warm my feet and satisfy my longing for music a bit more abstract than the fare often served up by the bigger touring electronic artists and DJs.

We arrived to find the lush sounds of ex-Canberran Bec Paton doing a warm-up set that, had it been louder, and she not a support DJ, would have been more than enough entertainment for one night. Her sublime mixing of records that would pose problems to the most talented of selectors formed a beat-laden, diverse, bass-y and beautiful introduction to the night - which was only slowed by quickly rectified turntable problems - and seemed like a tribute to all Krush is about: gorgeous sounds juxtaposed by drums-of-death.

The crowd swelled and with it, the atmosphere, so when DJ Krush took the stage an almighty cheer erupted from the crowd. For the next hour-and-a-half, we were presented with a wonderfully diverse display of track knowledge, manipulation and mixing skills. Happily, the Canberra crowd were appreciative - I’m sure roars of approval would emanate anytime, anywhere Krush started doing his live rendition of DJ Shadow’s Organ Donor, but cheers were elicited (deservedly) at the dropping of any of his own tracks, and any time some wizardry occurred. I couldn’t see exactly what he was using - it looked like two decks and some type of fancy effects unit - but make no mistake, he was controlling the machines and therefore the music; not making the job easy for himself. For music that, to the punters, was often beautiful and relaxing, the level of movement Krush exerted between implements to create it was mesmerising and somewhat exhausting to watch.

A satisfactory wash of amazement followed us out of the Refectory that night, so glad that we again had the pleasure of seeing a true master of his craft - and introduced by one of the more appropriately selected support acts for this type of show. If Krush ever comes to town again, make sure you get along!

Opening up the show were recently formed locals Dead Kings. While this was only their second gig, you wouldn’t know it from their solid performance. Offering up a uniquely heavy-yet-still-melodic sound, they managed to hold their own on a bill of much more well known and experienced groups. It’s great to see a young group that isn’t just trying to be another breakdown metal copy of these bands.

Californian natives The Ghost Inside provided the most straight-up hardcore sound of the night. With that modern tough-guy hardcore sound and those big gang vocal choruses that just seem to scream crowd participation, they whipped the masses into a frenzy of circle pits and two stepping. While not the most original band around, they do what they do well - and a lot better than many of the other American bands of this genre.

The tragedy that affected Melbourne’s The Red Shore last year is well known - losing their singer when their tour bus crashed. Yet the surviving members have managed to continue on delivering the same level of brutality they were known for. What makes me appreciate this group even more is the fact that while every other recent, so-called death metal band takes the Swedish melodic approach, they are clearly rooted in the classic death metal sound with a slower deeper roar - and without a single lyric understandable to my ears. It’s great to see this music popular with the long-fringed teenagers that made up the majority of the audience.

The UK’s Bring Me The Horizon on the other hand are the reason the previous band were such a breath of fresh air. That’s not to say I don’t like their music, it’s just that there is a lot of it around at the moment. BMTH are not let down by their musical ability or their vocals, but it’s their juvenile lyrics that make you think they’re just a pop-punk emo band putting on an act. Maybe that’s why every teenage girl in the audience wouldn’t stop screaming vocalist Oli Skye’s name. Anyway, an energetic stage show including stage dives and a wall of death made this a fun band to watch, despite their shortcomings.

Since they broke up over a year ago, I Killed the Prom Queen had always promised to do one final tour of Australia. So now, after a year of speculation about when and who would be singing for them, IKTPQ embarked on their much anticipated Say Goodbye tour with original vocalist Michael Crafter. As the band took the stage, the main question on everyone’s mind was how would Crafter, who hadn’t sung on a record since 2005’s Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You, handle the vocals of the recent Prom Queen frontman Ed Butcher. After the second song, I think everyone’s doubts were laid to rest: while the band’s later material sounds completely different on CD, Crafter managed to match Ed’s approach yet still make the songs his own. Opening up with When Goodbye Means Forever, IKTPQ then proceeded to blast through a relatively short set of ten songs, made up evenly of Crafter’s back catalogue and songs from the last album. Maybe it was just me, but after seeing the band fronted by Ed three times, there was always a lingering thought in my mind that they couldn’t match their records on stage. Maybe it was the nostalgia of seeing Crafter back in the band, but that thought never crossed my mind during this show. Ending with the crowd pleasing encore of Sharks in your Mouth, IKTPQ managed to provide a final tribute to their fans, and while I’m sure they will perform again sometime in the future, this was a fitting end to their time as a band.

Everyone had a class clown at their school; you know, the guy who would throw dusters into the fan or moon the substitute teacher. The guys from The Chaser are all from this mould - they have no shame and look at life with the refreshing mantra ‘how can we do this again, but naked?’

I was a tad worried when entering the packed Canberra Theatre for their final show as the guys are renowned for their masterful practical jokes, and I half expected to have Licciardello suited up as WA Opposition Leader Troy Buswell pleasurably sniffing my chair.

The show started with the guys running through the crowd parodying the inevitable latecomers to any theatre show, with a musical number ending in the eternal isle-shuffling question “would you rather have my bum or my testes in your face?” From here, the show never lost momentum, with several more musical numbers and an extremely amusing piece on product placement that involved Craig Reucassel showing more ass than a tanked party girl exiting a stretch hummer on the strip.

You can tell the guys have a live performance background, with stunning impersonations of everyone from Al Queda to Francis Forde, Australia’s shortest serving prime minister, who was only in office for 8 days - which the guys pointed out was longer than Peter Costello.

There were several audience participation segments with one involving the audience (ie. the drunkest guys) yelling out random subjects that Chas and Andrew had to create segues between, in tribute to Today Tonight’s queen of the random link Anna Coren. For me, the most amusing part was their case study of on-line dating, which hilariously highlighted the shallow nature of prospective keyboard Romeos. It exposed the fact that you can be devoutly Christian, rude and evasive or suggest applicants ‘not be worried if my kids walk in during sex while my husband is away dying of cancer’, but for God’s sake people, if you want to meet someone, just never be ‘normal’.

You can laugh at everything in life and The Chaser’s variety hour is proof that life ain’t all about bowser blues and international natural disasters.

“I want a song that gets attention, this is the way it goes…” I defy you not to sing along to Kisschasy’s Do-dos & Whoah-ohs. The near-thousand-strong crowd at the band’s recent ANU gig certainly didn’t hold back. And justifiably so - the Melbourne four-piece are riding high at the moment on the back of the success of their second album, Hymns for the Nonbeliever. More importantly, they kick it live.

While the front stalls were made up largely of 18-to-20-year-olds, there was no shortage of fringe-dwelling older folk singing along or nodding their heads in sage approval. But Kisschasy don’t have anything to prove to old farts like me. They do what they do well and rarely fail to deliver. The ANU throng certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Punters enjoyed a healthy serve of tracks from Kisschasy’s debut record, United Paper People, lapping up everything that came their way. Nobody was able to stand still during tunes like This Bed, Face Without a Name and Do-dos & Whoah-ohs.

And yet material from the band’s latest record attracted the strongest response. Opinions Won’t Keep You Warm at Night and Spray on Pants had the crowd - from the stage all the way to the mixing desk - shimmying, gyrating and bouncing along with hands aloft, much to the band’s pleasure. If this show was any indication, don’t expect any tickets to be available at the door of the next Kisschasy show.

The last time I saw The Donnas they were being supported by The Cops at the Metro Theatre in 2005. At that time, they were out here promoting their Gold Medal LP - it was heralded as their “mature album”, mainly because they had extended their palette to include piano (shock!) and acoustic guitars (horror!). They were still so enamoured with these new sounds that they even had a piano on stage so they could play the one song off the record that included the instrument. I remember it being a solid, if unremarkable gig; after last Tuesday, it’s clear they were only going through the motions.

Things have certainly changed in the Donnas camp in the intervening years. No longer on a major label, they seem hungry again, digging their heels in, and eager to impress. On their first visit to Canberra, they are now the support act for an Australian band (up and comers Kisschasy). They seem unlikely touring partners: Kisschasy’s topical angsty pop-punk clashing with the ladies’ more timeless sensibilities. That’s not to say that The Donnas aren’t topical, but all their musical references are at least pre-1989. Of course, you can never be out of touch when all you sing about is boys and partying - good times never go out of fashion.

The set began with the opening track from their new album Bitchin’ (also fabulously titled Bitchin’), betraying a distinct Sabbath influence, an indication of the heavier sound they are now pursuing. Forgoing the piano and mature considerations of their last tour down under, the set list almost exclusively came from their third (Spend The Night) and latest albums, save their best song of recent times, Fall Behind Me. It was a shame they didn’t treat us to a few earlier classics from albums like Turn 21, such as the archetypal 40 Boys In 40 Nights. Notwithstanding, it’s refreshing to see a band so comfortable with on-stage banter - not rushing from one song hurriedly to the next like they’d rather be somewhere else. Lead singer Brett Anderson was positively chatty between each and every song, talking about how touring partners Kisschasy are “gentlemen” (obviously code for “must be gay ‘cause they haven’t hit on any of us”), and describing the night’s gig as their “hump” show, falling as it did right in the middle of the tour. It was left to Ms Anderson and drummer Tory Castellano to rev up the crowd and provide the entertainment factor - axe-wielders Allison Robertson and Maya Ford were too focussed on their instruments from behind their fringes to glance up more than occasionally. Let’s hope next time they visit our fair city they are headlining and can treat us to a longer show.