DMA’s @ Oxford Art Factory

The Friday DMA’s show at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory was bound to sell out, and rightly so.

Kicking off the night to a nearly full room, support act The Creases did a quality job of warming up the crowd. Serving up a lustre of jangly guitar and hooky vocal melodies, the Brisbane natives’ placid shoegaze lo-fi/pop flair had all those before them eating out the palm of their hands.

After the crowd spent what seemed like an eternity staring at the black curtain that was to reveal the headline act, DMA’s strode onstage, head to toe in Nike and Adidas, and proceeded to blast through an aural onslaught of the sort not many other artists can pull off. Coherent, commanding and fierce are just a few words to describe the band’s live display. Upgraded to a six-piece ensemble, the group made for an energetic start as the frenetic pace continued almost non-stop until the end of the show.

Wasting no time, the set dived right into sheets of shredded guitar and Madchester vocals in ‘Feels Like 37’, the first track from their debut EP DMA’s. ‘The Plan’, ‘Your Low’ and ‘Lay Down’ showcased the increasingly melodic quality of the band’s songs, contrasted with the refreshingly slower swiftness of ‘So We Know’.

Swapping vocal duties between Tommy O’Dell, Johnny Took and Matt Mason, the unit powered through an entire catalogue of tunes, oozing with ease. Ultimately, though, the audience was not to be surprised – it knew what it wanted and it was certainly delivered. ‘Delete’ drew huge cheers from punters before the set finished up with the fuzzed-out sounds of ‘Play It Out’.

With only one EP under their belts, there was no encore; they didn’t have a huge amount of material to work with. But that couldn’t disguise what was a solid offering from one of Sydney’s tightest acts.