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Six months can be a long time or a short time depending on what occurs in between. Based on the Panics’ exhaustedly giddy performance at a jubilant Governor Hindmarsh – the penultimate date on their second national tour in support of Cruel Guards – it is fair to suggest this humble collective have grown a great deal since last Spring.

This growth does not necessarily have a whole lot to do with the players. Jae Laffer, Drew and Myles Wootton, Paul Otway and Julian Douglas remain appealingly modest, song-centred performers, much more in love with music than with themselves. The major transformation has taken place inside the ears of music followers around the nation, who have had their senses opened to the charms of a group that had for a time appeared likely to remain loved by few but unknown to many. The upsize in venues from the time of the first tour in November 2007 (in Adelaide they played two nights at Jive) to this one in May 2008 was a sign that many more had tuned in to the band’s meld of English and Australian, pop and rock, country and folk, old and new. Even more notable though has been the response to these shows. Few have not been accompanied by sold-out signs, and it isn’t difficult to imagine Laffer’s grateful opening words to the Gov (“this has got to be our biggest Adelaide show ever”) have been repeated to the crowds in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and of course Perth. There was a distinct air of newness about much of the crowd. First time guests of the Panics and the Gov, they will be back.

Those in search of a point of origin for the change need to look somewhere at the crossroads of the band’s material and their label’s marketing of it. Critical acclaim can only take a group so far, and positive reviews of the Panics have never been in short supply. Literate as well as listenable, they have the sort of style and songs that critics live to laud, with a combined musical strength similar to The Band at their early 1970s peak. But it needed a slight aural shift to the centre, plus some more aggressive work by their manager Pete Carroll and the number crunchers at Dew Process and Universal, to push the group into the mainstream. Rove McManus must have seen the symmetry when they appeared on his national variety show last week. Like him, the Panics are Perth indie boys made good.

Their reliance on Cruel Guards and most particularly lead single Don’t Fight It as the material to take the Panics forward is reflected in the band’s continued use of virtually the entire album at these shows. In their three appearances in Adelaide since its release they have played at least eight and often nine of the 10 tracks. Sprinkled in between are a few cuts from the past, namely Triple J favourites Best Mistake and Cash, but their Stone Roses-infused first album has been ignored entirely. The Gov show also saw the appearance of the lilting ballad In Your Head from the Crack In The Wall EP, plus Twin Sisters (_ Sleeps Like a Curse _).

There was the odd sign that record industry guidance does not always sit well: at one point Laffer smilingly introduced the jigging second single Feeling Is Gone by saying “we wanted to choose another song but you know record labels, cunts”. If anything, this was reassuring, for it is difficult to see the Panics ever putting together a piece of work they do not believe in. That is likely to be the next test for a group that has finally raised a fan base commensurate with their quality.

Check out all the photos HERE