AIRBOURNE, Orange Goblin, The Treatment @The Institute, Birmingham 9/12/13

As you get older time really does seem to fly. For example, can it really be close on three years since RTM first saw The Treatment?

Still impossibly young, that night in Nuneaton they were bottom of a bill to showcase the High Voltage record label, but even then they stood out.

Now they are readying album number two, "Running With The Dogs" and they seem to have the brightest of bright futures.

If years spent touring with everybody from Thin Lizzy and Status Quo to Black Stone Cherry (we think this is the fifth time we've seen them) make them polished. Their songs make them excellent. There is nothing subtle about them. This is straight up hard rock the way it used to sound. They sing a song called "I Bleed Rock And Roll" without any irony at all - and moreover you actually believe they do.

Finishing their set with old song "Shake The Mountain" The Treatment are as always, youthfully exuberant and thoroughly entertaining, and possibly set to leave the support circuit behind.

AC/DCs "Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock And Roll)" blasts out as Orange Goblin march out onto the stage. It is a prescient choice. For the 16 years since their début masterpiece "Frequencies From Planet Ten" came out - they play "Saruman's Wish" from it tonight - Goblin have been making stunning music, but only now are they finally getting the rewards.

Long one of RTMs favourite bands, OG have spent 2013 on the road, and it shows in a 40 minute set which is joyous, heavy and yet accessible all at once.

"Acid Trial" is monstrous, "Filthy And The Few" is one of the finest songs of this decade and "Some You Win, Some You Lose" welds into your brain and doesn't let go and that's just for starters.

Man mountain he may be, but clad in his Rainbow t shirt singer Ben Ward is no different from many of the crowd tonight and that is Goblin's key strength. Not Rock stars, just one of the best metal bands on the planet. Tonight is Orange Goblin's vindication for sticking at it.

Airbourne sound like AC/DC. Every article about the band has to say this it seems. This statement assumes that a) the band don't know and b) it's a bad thing.

Right from the moment RTM first went to watch the group, at the old Academy 3 back about seven years ago, to the twice a couple of years back they warmed up for Maiden and all the other times in between, one thing has set the Aussies apart and it is the sheer glee with which they perform. Oh and the volume. They are right up with Motörhead in ear ringing stakes.

And blimey, they can pull the punters in. Yes it's a great bill, but The Institute is heaving when the four piece arrive to the Terminator theme.

Right from the first bar of the rather appropriately named "Ready To Rock" this is a show of crazy proportions. The band are always bouncier than a Kangaroo with too much fizzy pop, but by third song in "Girls In Black" singer/guitarist Joel O'Keefe is on a roadies shoulders being carried around the crowd and it's clear they mean business here.

Then there's the songs. Riffs abound, and "Diamond In the Rough" is classic Acca Dacca Double entendre, the title track of recent record "Black Dog Barking" is a heavy hymn to the rock n roll of youth, while "Ain't No Way But The Hard Way" is full of cocksure stomp.

The encore sees "Raise The Flag" literally shake the room and then take it up a notch further as O'Keefe performs from the balcony, before an ebullient end of "Runnin' Wild" sees a snippet of "Paranoid" and the frontman smashing beer cans with his head. Don't tell us they are mere clones, Airbourne are simply too good live for that.

A special night. Three great bands, and headliners sound better than ever. In years to come reviews might even talk about a young band that sounds like Airbourne. We might almost forgive their gloating about the Ashes score. Almost.