In the notorious former maximum-security unit of Pentridge Prison, post-punk outfit Radio Free Alice is performing what you'd have to call a breakout gig.
The much-feared H Division used to house high-risk, uncontrollable inmates and when the band plays the tracks Paris is Gone and Rule 31, it quickly turns into a mosh pit.
A day earlier, 800 fans packed an alleyway in Sydney's Marrickville for another pop-up show to promote Radio Free Alice's debut album What's In Between, released via Atlantic Records at the end of October.
Despite its local following, frontman Noah Learmonth sees the Melbourne band better fitting the UK alternative rock scene than the Australian market.
Joy Division, The Smiths and The Cure are obvious influences on Radio Free Alice's nostalgic Anglophile sound, with their biggest Spotify listener base by far in London.
Learmonth says many great Australian bands aren't interested in making it overseas - but that's not Radio Free Alice.
"We always found that mentality quite unambitious and ... sort of depressing," he tells AAP.
As Britain's NME Magazine notes in this week's cover story, Radio Free Alice aren't short on ambition and they're not afraid to express it.
But perhaps that's OK for a band that has cracked the code on catchy new-wave melodies and post-punk bangers.
It's realising its ambitions, with a packed schedule of headline gigs across the UK and Europe, and slots at the Reading Festival in England and Gov Ball in New York.
What's In Between is more mid-tempo melodic and less punk than Radio Free Alice's three previous EPs, with singles Rule 31, Lunch Money, Crying With You and Big Ideas.
"I think in its own way (the album is) more confident and mature ... that's such a cliche, to describe your album as your most mature work but it definitely feels that way," Learmonth says.
It might also sound incongruous given Learmonth, guitarist Jules Paradiso, drummer Lochie Dowd and bassist Michael Phillips are in their mid-20s.
But while Radio Free Alice started releasing tracks in 2020, Paradiso and Learmonth began playing together at school aged about 13, with the sound and name already in place.
On either measure, the band has already been together longer than either Joy Division or The Smiths.
And at least they're not pretending.
Ambition hasn't made Learmonth immune to the pressure of expectation and he openly worries the album has to be good enough to justify the buzz.
"I love music more than anything else in my life but I also hate bad music more than anything else in my life," he says.
"I think there's a lot of boring music and I really don't want to be another band that releases a boring album."
Many of the songs are supposed to be funny, Learmonth notes, but not everyone appreciates tongue-in-cheek.
When Radio Free Alice covered Usher's DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love for triple j's Like A Version in April, Learmonth described the 2010 club hit as the ugliest duckling of bad songs.
"So we thought it was a fun challenge to see if we could turn it into a swan - if that was physically possible,” he reportedly said.
An online backlash described the comments as hurtful to Black artists and Radio Free Alice subsequently issued an apology.
Months later, Learmonth is about to find out whether What's In Between is a swan or an ugly duckling.
However, with most of the band's audience international, success won't be decided in Australia.
"I don't know if anyone's going to like it but I'm not lying to myself when I say I really like it, so I hope you all feel the same way," Learmonth says.
What’s In Between is out on October 30.
