I've been eagerly anticipating the Balam Acab show since I first heard the tour announcement. I personally thought Wander/Wonder was one of the finest electronic albums I heard last year, but my little brother, who's at the show with me, seemed to think it was a message from angels. He's wild with excitement about seeing Balam Acab live, which is cool - it's always more fun to go to a gig with someone who is a true diehard fan. We have the Silo Collective to thank for bringing Balam Acab to town, and most of the supports are members of the collective, which is beginning to showcase some of the finest left-field electronica Brisbane has to offer.

Motion.Picture.Actress is the artist I'm least familiar with here, but it's an immediately captivating performance, a dense wall of intricately woven electronic sounds arising from the laptop and samplers. It doesn't feel like a sample-heavy set, but the sounds produced are almost organic at times, bringing to mind images like pebbles clattering under waves on a beach, or harsh bird calls. My favourite part is a piece that incorporates a beautiful short clarinet sample, but the whole set is quite impressive, marred only by occasional laptop glitches causing the music to stutter a few times.

I've seen Marcy Prospects live once before, and I know most of these songs well by now through repeated listens of their "These Pale Skies" EP. With their balance of melancholy singer-songwriter tunes and glitchy electronic sounds, they deliver a lovely, understated set; it's not visually dynamic, given the dim blue lighting in the Bridge Club, but the sad, wistful music settles a pleasantly calm mood over the room.

Hunz are a mild letdown for me; I am a big fan of their primarily-electronic recorded material, but I find that the guitar/drums/synth setup that they use live somewhat detracts from their uniqueness. They're also clearly the odd band out in this lineup, sounding more like traditional indie rock in sharp contrast to the laptop-heavy nature of the other acts. It's not a bad performance though, just a little underwhelming. I especially like their cover of the theme song from the Astro-Boy cartoon, which was originally released on last year's Soundcrane fundraiser compilation for Japanese earthquake relief.

Then it's time for the headline act. To my surprise, two people take the stage instead of just the one; there's the man behind Balam Acab, 21-year-old Pennsylvania native Alec Koone, but he's accompanied by a young woman who's here to provide vocals for most of these songs. Oddly, I'd never thought of Balam Acab's music as having a lot of vocals, yet the parts she sings are all familiar to me from the album. On record, though, the vocal melodies are subtle, often buried in shimmering layers of sound, and the voice is heavily processed to give it an eerie, childlike quality. Live, the singer is a much more prominent part of the music, rather than just one element in the mix, and her strong voice remains pure and unprocessed.

The result is a quite different version of Balam Acab. It's quite a beautiful version, but it's certainly unexpected. Where the album is quiet and fragile, these live versions are bold and dramatic. The electronic component of the music, too, differs from the recorded version; it's more upbeat and has a bright, kaleidoscopic quality, in contrast to the dim, moody lighting. It's almost like they're creating live remixes of Balam Acab songs, rather than simply recreating the familiar album versions in a live setting.

For me, while ultimately I still prefer the versions on the album, this is an interesting and successful way to do live electronica. It feels truly live, without adding unneccessary rock trappings to force the music into an unfamiliar shape. Next time I listen to the album I'll surely hear these songs in a different light. Meanwhile, my brother the number one Balam Acab fan is utterly thrilled, so I'd have to call the evening a success.

Words by Grace Nye. Photos by Sky Kirkham