FOR almost half a decade Eat Your Heart Out have been a Newcastle buzz band.
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From humble beginnings playing Muswellbrook house shows and DIY all-ages events, the group have since inked an international deal with Fearless Records and released their debut album Florescence in May this year.
The band chose to begin their Australian tour in support of the album with a homecoming show at Newcastle's Cambridge Hotel.
Support act Towns, a two-piece from Adelaide, almost stole the show with their flirtatious brand of melodic bar-room emo. They'd played eight shows already in the previous week at BigSound Festival in Brisbane, yet gave as much energy and wide-eyed smiles as if it was day one.
It was obvious the band were unfamiliar to most of the audience, but the crowd warmed to them with their standout medley of classic TV themes from That 70's Show to The O.C.
A few technical difficulties in between acts delayed Eat Your Heart Out's race to the stage by a few minutes, but they were still brimming with confidence in front of their friend-filled crowd.
Over the 15-song set they touched on almost every period in their short, but busy, career. It was a treat to hear older songs like Drag Me Down and Patience that were still as lively as the new material.
Rust from their 2017 EP, Mind Games, was also an early highlight with its duelling guitar interplay, fusing heavy chords with more erratic riffs.
Frontwoman Caitlin Henry drove the direction throughout the set, backed up by lead guitarist Will Moore's stage moves and Jake Cronin's unpredictable drum rhythms.
Bassist Dom Cant showed off his best bass face, angling his instrument in a way reminiscent of Blink 182's Mark Hoppus, and other guitarist Andrew Anderson followed suit in his back corner of the stage.
They closed their set with triple j favourite Closer To The Sun, a good representation of the heavy '90s grunge sound on steroids they create across their music.
Their brilliant early single Postcard was absent from the set list, but they still showed Newcastle just how important their roots are to them.