Review | The Scientists at The Barn, Milton: "Rock'n'roll primitivism at its most thrillingly raw"

Their enjoyable set of melodic garage-rock is, as one audience member accurately shouts out mid-set: "quite good."

Australian swamp-rockers The Scientists are a belligerent, bluesy, noisy mess of a band – and I mean that all as a compliment.

While the band first emerged from Perth in western Australia at the end of the 1970s with a sound that cleaved to straight-ahead punk, it was their second incarnation from 1981 until it imploded in 1987 which proved to be more influential. Channeling The Cramps and The Gun Club via Captain Beefheart, they have been cited as key in informing the first wave of grunge bands who would later go on to rule the early 1990s.

Now several years into a reunion and fronted by Kim Salmon throughout, guitarist Tony Thewlis and bassist Boris Sudjovic were also part of those key '80s recordings, while the band’s former tour manager Leanne Chock is now behind the drumkit.

Salmon informs us early on that: "We're a jazz band" with tongue firmly in cheek, but in truth this is rock'n'roll primitivism at its most thrillingly raw.

Tracks like Set It On Fire and Solid Gold Hell ("as close as we get to a hit"), Nitro and Blood Red River demonstrate the potency of those early songs. Swampland, featuring the band at their bluesiest, is a particular standout.

But there is also a new album, Negativity, to plug – their first since 1987. The Science of Suave, Naysayer and Seventeen all hold up against the older material – and there's even "an obligatory ballad", Moth-Eaten Velvet, which Salmon tells us with customary confidence is "better than Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath's efforts" at the form. While I'm not sure I'd go that far, it is a bruiser.

For another new number, I Wasn't Good at Picking Friends, a guest vocalist, Kat, is plucked from the crowd (clearly not at random, as Salmon jokingly pretends). This duet of sorts sees her provide a sweet counterpoint to Salmon's howl.

These Scientists may not be much use in a laboratory, but they are empirically a damn fine rock'n'roll band.