British India were joined by Tudor Club for the Victorian leg of their national tour, off the back of their new single “Threshold American”.

I walked along St Kilda Esplanade as the sun was setting behind the palm trees, past the Espy, onto Dominos and into the arms of my friend and photographer Drew. After a few slices, we arrived and met up with Tudor Club who graciously showed us around The Espy’s Gershwin Room, and then took us upstairs to their greenroom.

The Espy is a beautiful old venue, and the bands are given what seemed to be an old hotel room from when it used to take guests, with all the old mid-century décor save for a fridge which they added and stocked with glass bottled pepsi and beer.

Tudor Club came out to a half full room and put on a great performance. A very tight well-rehearsed sound, with the addition of guitarist Oscar and bassist Patrick to the usually two-man outfit. The rhythm section was loud and driving, and as the room started to fill up, you could feel the energy of the crowd lift. Frontman Rory took a sip from his impressive 1.25 liter water bottle and introduced a new track ‘Holding Out’, a great song which was received well by the crowd.

Next they covered ‘Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked’ with drummer James, who told me before the show had just regained his voice after a cold, singing the verses (everybody loves a singing drummer). Their last song ‘Ten Feet’ was my favorite of the night. Rory’s voice particularly shone, as did the guitar and drums which intro the track, and they closed out their set to an almost-full house. Tudor Club are skilled musicians with a confident, comfortable aura which is hard to resist, and tonight they played another great show.

After the set we went back to their greenroom, enjoyed some warm chips and cold beer compliments of The Espy, before British India took the stage.

The headliners were next, and I have to say I wasn’t expecting the crowd to be as viciously eager as they were. The room was full of people screaming the words and grabbing their friends with glee when they played the first note of one of their hits like ‘Run the Red Light’ and ‘I Can Make You Love Me’, my favorite track which ended with a huge crescendo from guitarist Jack and drummer Matt. They were naturals, very energetic on stage and played fast with thick thrashing guitars at times reminiscent of The Strokes or The White Stripes, and lead singer Declan who has been fronting the band for 20 years is as charismatic and melodically brilliant a front man as I’ve seen.

After a flawless set, they momentarily left the stage and their positively feverish crowd before returning for an encore of ‘Suddenly’. Frontman Declan thanked the crowd, saying “it’s getting harder and harder to enjoy the finer things in life”. I can say that their Espy show was certainly one of those finer things.

If you want to catch Tudor Club and British India, they will be playing the last Victorian show of their tour at Sookie Lounge, Belgrave Friday the 4th of October.