The Dirty Three are in a category of their own.

With a spartan line-up of violin, guitar and drums, this Aussie instrumental trio mix folk-rock with classical minimalism and new jazz.

But outrageous passion is their special ingredient. On record, they can take you from melancholy to undiluted joy in the space of a few bars but, live, the outsized personality of leader Warren Ellis adds a visceral, rock 'n' roll edge.

On Sunday, the three - Ellis on violin, Mick Turner on guitar and Jim White on drums - were augmented by an electric bass player but with the theatrics of the main man dancing, leaping, whooping and spitting on stage, you felt they could have implied any extra instrument they desired without it having to be there.

Ellis' trademark laconic introductions to the numbers were just the icing on a very rich cake.

"This song is what it's like when you get home and everyone's dead," he remarked casually before launching into the achingly sad and beautiful, Some Summers They Drop Like Flys.

There were songs about bad girls, songs about escaping, songs about being emotionally trapped and, for the finale, a song about "waking up in the back of a car dead when you've had too much fun".

Ellis made his violin screech, sing oh-so-sweetly, and sound like a rock guitar, Turner strummed rhythms and plucked a discreet counterpoint while White seemed to hold the whole edifice together with his powerful polyrhythmic drumming.

These guys drew us into their world - there was no escape, we had too much fun and we lived to tell the tale.

The New York-based Clogs - guitar, violin, percussion and bassoon - opened the show and despite a similar line-up to The Dirty Three, could not have been more different.

Their more cerebral, intricately-composed music mixed a broader palate of classical styles with rock. While mostly polite, they raised some cacophonous, Big Apple noise from time to time and were never less than captivating.

And percussionist Thomas Kozumplik's steel drum solo on Thom's Night Out was to die for.