THE BEASTS
JP SHILO
The Metro Theatre, Sydney
Friday 5 April 2 2024

Was a time when Australia was seemingly the envy of the underground music world. A wave of Oz bands had grown up in relative splendid isolation, in an environment with a currency based on paying your dues via live work.

The bands absorbed many external influences but parsed them through local filters and delivered something unique.There were few barriers between the players and the punters (in some cases they were interchangeable) and their existences revolved around extended weekends and pushing things to the max.

That’s why gigs like tonight need to be cherished. They come along only once in a while. They recall a different time, and give hope that some kids will pick up on what’s being dished up and want to go and do the same. You call it nostalgia; I call it therapeutic.

FULL FLOWER MOON BAND 
SUNFRUITS
(and VILLE VALO)  
Metro Social Club, Sydney
Saturday 16 March, 2024
Photos by DIGBY FROG

Brisbane's Full Flower Moon Band is one of the best, and most inventive bands in Australia; simply put they’ll lift the hairs on your arm. Bold statement, but true. The reasons why will be clear if you read on.

It’s a Saturday night. It’s raining, I am standing at the bus top, irritated and looking at the timetable. Damn, the bus is late again and I’m going to miss the connecting ferry.  Fuck privatisation. It has turned the local bus service to shit.

Approaching is a cool rock ‘n’ roll couple who look about my age, one of them wearing a Chimers T-shirt (a rarity in my part of the world.)

We strike up a conversation about the appalling bus service as they have walked from another stop after giving up waiting for a bus that will never arrive. 

Cheap Trick
+ The Angels
The Palais, St Kilda, VIC
Wednesday, 13 March 2024 

Hello I-94 Barflies! I hope you are all in fine form. Myself, I’m still recovering from seeing the amazing Cheap Trick at The Palais Theatre in St Kilda and they did not disappoint.

Dragging myself out of bed at 430am for a 1000 kilometre public transport round trip is never pleasant and as the years creep by, travelling does get more fiscally challenging. But family and live rock ‘n’ roll is what gets me off the land and out of The Farmhouse. First, let me say this if you’re ever in Melbourne The Pint On The Punt in Richmond is a nice place to start your drinking, get a feed and sleep on a lumpy mattress. It’s also within walking distance of the now boring suburb of St Kilda. 

_{Ross Knight.}  

COSMIC PSYCHOS
+ ZEKE 
Metro Theatre, Sydney
Saturday, January 13 2024

Nice Day To Go To The Pub? Aren’t they all during an Australian summer? Tonight in Sydney it’s muggier than a brickie’s armpit and there’s no reason to break convention, but, fuck me, The Sir John Young Hotel on Sydney’s George Street sure has changed. 

It’s been re-named “The Resch” (gee, wonder where they dug up that one), the front bar has been opened up and there’s not a TV set in sight. All that polished concrete makes for a brutalist existence. Of course, it lacks live music, with a DJ setting up while we sip our beers, and the usual crowd of pre-Metro gig people absent. The schooners have not unexpectedly crept up close to the $10 mark. That’s life in Sydney!

Pat Todd
+ Mad Macka
Golden Barley Hotel, Enmore, NSW
Saturday, 25 November 2023 

Australian music legend and label owner Sebastian Chase once said to me: “Punk rock is folk music with volume - street music, if done right”. And with local bands like Cosmic Psychos and X, a case can certainly be prosecuted that street music and its stories can be  found in bars and pubs across the land.

Mad Macka has played his fair share of pubs and bars for almost 40 years, originally with The Onyas and lately with Cosmic Psychos. Macka’s music mirrors what you’ll still see and hear in drinking establishments across the land: cynical yarns by blokes on the punt and into their sixth schooner.

_{Lemon Twig Brian D'Addario.}

The Lemon Twigs
+ Jack Ladder
Manning Bar, Sydney
Saturday 28 October, 2023

Photos: Shona Ross

The Lemon Twigs are Long Island, NY, resident brothers Brian and Michael D'Addario and are on their second visit to Australia since 2017. They’ve been on the playlist in our house for four or five years at our youngest family member’s insistence and it was deemed compulsory we attend this show on their short tour.

The show at the Manning Bar was opened by Jack Ladder who had done a spot on the NSW Spencer P Jones Tribute bill a few years back. My recollection from then was that Ladder did a set of acoustic tunes solo and was well received. Tonight, he appeared in a duo with an Epiphone parlour guitar and an accompanist and started off in much the same vein.