It's 4:30 in the afternoon at Triple Ms 'M-one' rock music festival. Most of the crowd, like myself, have been wandering around in the sun for the past 5 hours battling the masses and moving between the three stages in the homebush grounds. Surprisingly there is little sign of fatigue or sunstroke as a crowd gather just outside the main stadium awaiting the final act to take the New Music stage. Earlier in the day we had heard from upcoming bands such as Noogie, Sneak and Antiskeptic. But the band that will be headlining this stage is Melbourne based rockers Another Race.

Wesz

The GooGoo dolls can be heard playing in the main stadium as a triple M crew member steps up to the mic and introduces Another Race as the next big thing, "You won't believe what you are about to hear, take notice. These guys are going somewhere". After this brief but powerful introduction the guys take the stage and without much hesitation open the set with 'Swell'. I spent the first song trying to adjust to the sheer volume at which these guys were playing, every time Matt Darcy used his kick drum I felt as though I was being thumped with a sledgehammer. Next is 'I lied', which is a perfect example of how these four guys can throw everything into the mix, rock, funk, rap and end up with a concoction that is all of their own.

I can't help but pay special attention to Callum Robertson, who is the new guitarist who replaced Chris Carty who left the band mid September. I realise that this would be the first string of shows Callum would have been apart of and he appeared to be a little reserved but every now and then he would throw in "so how you all feelin today?" and apart from missing a few of the backing vocals he seems to be handling the role quite well.

Wesz & Jake

Another Race just ooze charisma and really come across as just being so effortlessly cool throughout the set. Wesz is obviously comfortable on stage and bounces around non-stop even toying with the crowd telling us we are all "pussies compared to Brisbane".

'Sink or swim' is another stand out, it is clear that the crowd are really starting to warm up and as the gathering of keen rockers directly in front of the stage recognise the intro to the next song 'Jumpin' they all let loose. This radio hit still hasn't lost touch with the people and keeps them all on their feet, it's energetic, raw and simple enough to inspire all those primal feelings.

For the real fans its time for an older track 'Monkey boy' and as the set closes with the strong, powerful and aggressive 'Wake in Anger' it hits home that this is the real deal. One of those moments when you almost feel like the irrepairable destruction of your ears seems like a small price to pay for the privilege of being there when it all began.

Reviewed by Bianca Boss