FULL Flower Moon Band are one of those acts you can't fully appreciate until you witness them live.
Charismatic frontwoman Kate "Babyshakes" Dillon and her Brisbane bandmates might possess two cracking albums - Diesel Forever (2022) and Megaflower (2024) - in their back pocket, but it's on stage where this band truly shines.
There's a level of darkness and danger just lurking underneath the surface.
After impressive coming-out performances last year at Gum Ball and Off The Rails festivals, Friday night's gig in the King Street Warehouse was Full Flower Moon Band's first Newcastle headline show.
Newcastle punks Boycott opened the night before Brisbane's Radium Dolls took to the stage, and even climbed it.
Radium Dolls front man Will Perkins entertained the audience with tales of getting into fights along Honeysuckle and constantly hung from scaffolding above the stage, even falling at one point. You get the feeling Perkins didn't feel a thing until the morning.
Despite the theatrics, Radium Dolls possess some genuinely quality tunes. Tractor Parts is an explosive and very-Australian tale of heartbreak wrapped up in masculine vulnerability.
Prior to the show Dillon told the Newcastle Herald: "When I first started I almost had too much energy and it was like an uncontrolled performance for a couple of years as I was so excited to be doing it."
It's clear Dillon has learnt to harness that sexual energy. She can hypnotise an audience like a Chrissy Amphlett armed with an electric guitar.
Megaflower is essentially an album of lust and desire and Dillon was ready to present the full experience to the three-quarter full King Street Warehouse.
After a measured start on the dark groove of Super Like Me and Illegal Things - both of which mine a Brian Jonestown Massacre-style of psych-rock drone - the full "Babyshakes" and hip-shaking show was ignited on the riff-heavy Cowboy.
"Come round here and lie down straight/ I'm just like the animals babe/ I need things I can't explain," Dillon sang with intensity.
A broken string meant a slight detour to a stripped-back version of Man Hands, which was hammed up by bassist Marli Smales.
Dillon might be the primary focus, but you cannot ignore the rest of Full Flower Moon Band. Smales and drummer Luke Hanson produced a wicked desert-rock groove on Enemy and the doom-laden riffs on West Side by guitarists Caleb Widener and Christian Driscoll were the perfect accompaniment to Dillon's theatrics.
Rock'n'roll showmanship and charisma is probably a dying art form in the Australian music scene, but someone forgot to tell Babyshakes Dillon.
It's springtime and Full Flower Moon Band are blooming.
