The Underground Stage
“OK Hotel drop into the early set like it’s the early hours, a set dressed up to the nines with bangers. ‘Swim’ and ‘Life Is Crazy (Like That)’ jump off the page but there’s little to fault here across the board. Full-cream, muscular, perfectly cooked – pick your metaphor, it’s all alright round here right […]
“Seathru play a short but well-spiked set tonight and deliver in bloody spades on the promise of their singles to date. They might be brand new but there’s so much talent here, songs bursting out of the edges of the picture, a colossal and ramshackle collision of electricity and joy. Chock full of minerals and […]
After a quick outfit change, Second Idol’s debut arrives with a barrage of guitars, coming as no surprise to those familiar with the band’s previous form as Bruise Pristine. Opening with a ringing wall of sound, it pounds and strides and generally gives you the death stares, right up in your face and absolutely unfliching. […]
Throbbing with menace in the verse, but exploding into ramshackle joy in the chorus, Human Noise’s latest chugs and thrums like an engine. Bookended by a no-nonsense start and a whiplash ending this is smart songwriting, chock full of musical flourishes and sharply observed scenes. Great stuff.
The outstanding Hope D returns with her Cash Only EP and among this excellent set of songs sits this, another sharp set of observational everyday notes elevated into a swaggering digitised stomp of a song. While stylistically this is showing *another* side to her polygonal talent, at the heart of it all lies a questioning […]
Wow – when Carla Geneve lets it all go, you’re going to want to duck. Following on from a series of (musically, not lyrically) more gentle songs, this one is let off its leash and is commanded to go for the throat. “I’ve been listening to screamo / I’ve been feeling real emo… again” goes […]
“Ed Barnes is exactly one year on from his stage debut tonight with this project, and it’s fun to hear all the ideas that have been buzzing around in his head this whole time. His Dylan crush is still strong – and the Inner West kitchen-sink stories still ring loud – but there’s wild range […]
“Haters, bless ‘em, have come all the way down from Brisbane for tonight, but the trip hasn’t lessened the fury and urgency of this raucous bag of pleasurable crazy. It’s all madly rough-edged, but it’s bloody huge in its tune, like Lemonheads doing Fugazi. Two-piece punk done *just* right.” Facebook | Instagram | Twitter Subscribe […]
“There’s something musical theatre-ish about Shrug – the songs vary between buzzy Fleetwood Mac-style pop, folk flourishes, and martial piano-driven numbers, like the soundtrack to a story or chapters in a book. The various members seem to play all of each other’s instruments too, adding to the stage ensemble vibe.” Facebook | Instagram Subscribe to […]