- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 380
The New Christs
+ Jupiter 5
+ The Stallers
Marrickville Bowling Club, NSW
Friday, 19 June 2026
WORDS & IMAGES: The Barman
When does a band cross the line from having notoriety to being an institution? At what point does rock and roll cease being venal and become venerable? If a full-house for the New Christs on a Friday night in Sydney doesn’t raise these questions and more, you’re probably not over-thinking things enough.
We’re not talking about “playing things safe” and an audience becoming overly familiar as a band goes through the motions. If you want that, go to a Dragon gig. This is about when an audience make a band its own, accepting what it dishes up and extracting a little more as the on-stage energy feeds back becomes a loop
Melbourne values its live music and the people who play it. Sydney, not so much. Gig-going’s no longer in our blood and it's too simple to blame the pokies. We see a show advertiswed, feign interest, give a “going” click to a Facebook event, but if there’s the sniff of precipitation in the wintry air, we retreat into to our bolt-holes and stream six-part Netflix doccos. What the fuck is wrong with us?
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 647
Painting the town red: Lydia Lunch and Andrew Coates Photo: The Barman.
Lydia Lunch
+ Rebel Yell
The Factory Floor, Marrickville, NSW
Sunday 21 June 2026
Lydia Lunch and Andrew Coates are not a Suicide tribute band. Not in the popular form of the term. Let’s call them “Suicide adjacent” by virtue of Coates’ Melbourne band, Black Cab, playing lots of their music in the past, and Lydia being the titular Queen of New York City’s No Wave scene, who saw and knew the seminal duo.
A gig billed as Lydia Lunch playing the songs of Suicide and its late frontman, Alan Vega, might not sound like typical I-94 Barfly fare but man (or woman) does not live on Detroit rock alone. Much to the disdain of some around me, I have a deep and abiding love of the New York Lower East Side Sound in all its diverse forms. A sloppy Johnny Thunders lead break or a Johnny Ramone downstroke lands as well as a Tom Verlaine vibrato-fueled filigree or Marty Rev’s monloithic Motorik beats.
- Details
- By Edwin Garland
- Hits: 1207
Sacred Cowboys
+ Belle Phoenix Band with Jeffery Wegener
+ Pete Ross and The Sapphire
Marrickville Bowling Club, Sydney
Saturday 18 April, 2026
WORDS: Ed Garland
IMAGES: The Barman
Tonight was one of the strongest bills for some time at the Marrickville Bowlo with the common thread that all three bands are on the legendary record label Beast Records.
Beast is an ultra-cool French imprint that has always gone for the musical underbelly, putting out soulful stuff with swagger and a sense of the street. And more importantly bands with great songs – acts like HITS, Kim Salmon, Six Foot Hick, Spencer P Jones and numerous others, The label is also part of the iconic Binic Festival where tonight's headliners Sacred Cowboys are playing later this year.
It’s been 20 months since I saw tonight’s opening act, Pete Ross and The Sapphire, when they supported Charlie Owen at the Camelot Lounge in Sydney. What I took away from that night was that they were a class band of great players, with incredible songs and Pete Ross’s soulful voice.
More than a year-and-a-half on, they could still be the most underrated act on the Sydney circuit, but they remain unpretentious and humble. Tonight, they were playing as a three piece and you might say it was “The Sapphire going Nirvana”. They were certainly more direct and more rocking.
- Details
- By Ed Garland
- Hits: 664
Full Flower Moon Band
+ Drunk Mums
+ Smoking Single Party (aka TISM)
Howler, Brunswick, VIC
Sunday, 29 March, 2026
Photos by Garry Gray
It's been almost three years since I stood at a small festival in Sydney’s Marrickville on one of the hottest days in recent memory, watching new-ish Brisbane band Full Moon Flower Band in awe.
Their album “Diesel For Ever” had just been released and they were making some serious inroads online, with their intelligent, dark and cinematic videos.
The band was the vision of the mind-blowing talent that is Kate Dillon who was already a filmmaker in her own right. She’d collected a mob of like-minded, tough street-level rock and roll players who had one foot in the 1980s roar of outfits like The Bad Seeds and PJ Harvey and the other in Stoner Rock territory with a glazing of psychedelia.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 625
TV Smith’s Adverts
+ The Dark Clouds
+ Cammy Cautious and the Wrestlers
Landsowne Hotel, Sydney
Friday 10 April 2026
Words and images: The Barman
There's no time to waste so this will be succinct and to the point: TV Smith and his Adverts (aka the Hard-Ons) were every bit as great on their Australian tour as reviews would have it. There’s only one show left in the tour (tonight at La La La's in Wollongong.) If you have the ability to be there, do it.
TV who? Listen up…
TV Smith and his band The Adverts were part of the first-wave of UK Punk. Along with the Pistols, The Damned, The Clash and Buzzcocks. The Adverts might have been the most literate of the bunch, with their observations on mass media, society and “the system”. As fitted the times, they were urgent and angry.
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 2012
TV Smith's Adverts
The Tote, Collingwood, VIC
Friday 3 April 2026
The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, North Melbourne, VIC
Sunday 5 April 2026
Words & Pictures: Robert Brokenmouth
I cannot believe it’s been so long since I’ve seen the Hard Ons. Been in a tunnel for a few years. Never mind.
I sent some rude words to the publicist, Dave Laing, when I found out TV Smith was touring - but (understandably) not to my hometown, Adelaide. I did an interview with TV Smith, and was glad that I’d got a few things right.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 731
Guitar Wolf
+ Meow Meow and The Smack Outs
+ L.A.R.M.
The Factory Floor, Marickvile, NSW
Saturday, March 21, 2026
What was that? Twelve hours later after being swept out of The Factory Floor like post-gig detritus, it’s still sinking in. A couple of their albums grace the I-94 Bar’s shelves but accidents of timing somehow determined that this was my first in-the flesh Guitar Wolf experience.
So what was it like? Speak up, I can’t hear you. And watch where you’re walking, that’s my dropped jaw you’re about to step on.
- Details
- By Shaun C. Duncan with interjections from Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 634
Boris in full flight (with Merzbow lurking far left).
"The Molly Fet Circuit Catches Boris at the Adelaide Festival"
Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide
Thursday, February 26, 2026
By Shaun C. Duncan
(with photos and intrusions by Robert Brokenmouth)
It must have been satisfying to curate an arts festival back in the bad old days when luvvies held the whip hand, when they could simply TELL the great unwashed what was good - and damn them if they didn’t agree.
Indeed, the fact that no-one showed up to see your revisionist production of “A Doll’s House”, performed by an all-female troupe of Inuit puppeteers was proof of its worth because we all know the plebs are ignorant slobs anyway.
Better yet, if the proles complained that you’re wasting taxpayers money, then you could dine out for weeks on your coveted status of being “controversial” because we all know the point of ART is to offend the sensibilities of those footing the bill for it.
[Brokenmouth interjects: my understanding was that in the earlier years of the Festival (and Fringe) the events were usually packed ... but, by the mid-80s there was definitely a "here come the Festival 'controversies'" ritual - controversies over things which wouldn't be controversial without 'The Agoniser' telling us they were controversial.]
[Shaun continues]:
I’m sure it was a good grift while it lasted, but the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and the era of austerity changed all that: bums on seats became the order of the day and the festivals have been forced to cast their nets a little wider – not TOO wide, mind you – in search of people who will actually PAY for culture, and in this day and age there’s virtually one demographic left: middle-aged record snobs.
- Details
- By Robert Brokenmouth
- Hits: 546
The Tiger Lillies
Adelaide Festival
Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Promoting their current album “Serenade from the Sewer”, British punk trio The Tiger Lillies come to Adelaide courtesy of the Adelaide Festival. It's a delight to see such a high quality act play in such a lovely setting (the revamped Maj is wonderful in the theatre part, but boy, is the downstairs section kinda shit and unwelcome-y or what?).
There is a lot of guff written about The Tiger Lillies, and since this is my first time seeing them, I'm going to add to it.
But first, if you've not seen them before, go. You simply must see them.
If you have seen them before, go again. Also, buy a handful of tickets, give them to friends, relatives, strangers. And go again and again.
Because: they're extremely good at what they do, they're involving, moving, entertaining, and super-real. Context: this talented mad bastard, Martyn Jacques, has been doing The Tiger Lillies with several equally talented mad bastards, So think - are you ready?
- The Beasts' "Black Milk" show is a Sydney triumph
- First responders with a serve of old time Oz punk? Fuck The Neighbours finds its feet in The MoshPit
- The Big D gets his Soft 'n' Sexy Sound on at The Gov
- Phoenix rising at Lazy Thinking and guess who's the Belle of the ball
- The Gin Palace soars before Swaggerland puts iceing on the collaborative cake
- Tick Tick Boom! Swedish royalty puts the rock back into midweek Sydney
Send us stuff to review
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The Living Eye
Lydia Lunch
The Songs of Suicide and Alan Vega
featuring Andrew Coates (Black Cab)
JUN
24 - Ed Castle, Adelaide
+ Messianic Gloss
25 - The Milk Bar, Perth
+ Streets of Separation
Tickets
Joeys Coop
"Sawdust Memories" Album Tour
JUNE
25 - MoshPit, Sydney
+ Johnny Batchelor + The Exile Co.
JULY
11 & Sun 12 - Mullum Roots Festival,
Mullumbimby, NSW
18 - Indiue Festival, Bellingen, NSW
AUG
22 - Union Hotel, Newtown, NSW
+ The On and Ons
28 - Smiths Alternative, Canberra
+ Sanctimonious Fux
30 - Link & Pin, Woy Woy, NSW
SEP
13 - MARRICKVILLE BOWLO, NSW
+ Swaggerland
18 - Tap Room, Castlemaine, VIC
19 - Painted Lady, Ballarat, VIC
+ Cold Irons Bound + Neutron Flow
20 - Union Hotel, Brunswick, VIC
NOV
28 - Blah Bar, Lismore, NSW
29 - Junk Bar, Brisbane, QLD (arvo)
Indie Sounds of the Harbour City Vol 2
Launch Tour
JUL
3 - Dissent Bar, Canberra ACT
4 - Ryans Hotel, Thirroul
5 - The Marlin Hotel, Ulladulla
10 - Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle
11 - Six String, Erina
12 - Deadsset, Darlinghurst, Sydney
17 - Lou Lou Room, Wynnum, QLD
18 - Coffs Harbour Hotel, Coffs Harbour, NSW
19 - Blah Bar, Lismore, NSW
24 - Crowbar Sydney
25 - Vi-Nil HQ, Ourimbah, NSW
26 - Link & Pin, Woy Woy, NSW
31 - The Vic, Orange, NSW
AUG
1 - Crossroads, Dubbo, NSW
7 - Diamond Dogs, Dapto, NSW
8 - Wings & Tins, Dee Why, NSW
Amammoth + None For One
+ Old Heathens + Buzz Wagon
+ The Limited + Headspacer
+ My Velvet Exit
Lazy Thinking, Dulwich Hill, NSW
2.30-11PM
- July 25
Smoked Salmon
Totally Sick!! Tour
JULY
24 - Mojo's, Fremantle, WA
25 - Prince of Wales, Bunbury, WA
31 - Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine, VIC
AUG
1 - Shotkickers, Thornbury, VIC
2 - Wheatsheaf, Adelaide, SA
6 - La La La's, Wollongong, NSW
7 - Petersham Bowling Club, Petersham , NSW
8 - Link & Pin, Woy Woy, NSW
9 - The Oak Tighes Hill, Newcastle, NSW
(free)
14 - Tanswells, Beechworth, VIC
(free)
15 - Smiths Alternative, Canberra, ACT
21 - Republic Bar, Hobart, TAS
22 - Royal Oak, Launceston, TAS
28 - Junk Bar, Brisbane, QLD
29 - Blah Bar, Lismore, NSW
30 - Cabarita Beach Club, Cabarita, NSW (free)
SEP
4 - Young St Tavern, Frankston, VIC
The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper
Ed Kuepper 50 Years Retrospective
JULY
30 - Avoca Theatre #
31 - Canberra, The Street
AUG
1 - Wombarra Bowlo
6 - Adelaide, The Gov
8 - Melbourne, National Theatre
9 - Barwon Heads Hotel
15 - Fremantle, Freo Social
20 - Brisbane, The Princess
21 - Coffs Harbour, The Jetty Theatre
22 - Murwillumbah, Regent Theatre
27 - Sydney, Enmore Theatre
Tickets
Huxton Creepers
12 Days To Paris Tour
AUG
7 - Sooki Lounge, Belgrave, VIC
+ Icecream Hands
8 - Croxton Bandroom, Thornbury, VIC
+ Icecream Hands
14 - Marrickville Bowling Club, NSW
+ The Johnnys
15 - Marrickville Bowling Club, NSW
+ The Johnnys
16 - Hamilton Station Hotel, Newcastle, NSW
(afternoon show)
+ The Johnnys
21 - Norton Music Factory,
Caloundra, QLD
+ The Johnnys
22 - Crowbar Brisbane, QLD
+ The Johnnys
+ Mick Medew and Ursula
23 - Wallaby Hotel, Mudgeeraba, QLD
(afternoon show)
+ The Johnnys
The Damned
Final Damnation 50
Australia and New Zealand
SEP
8 - AUCKLAND, Powerstation
10 - SYDNEY, The Opera House
11 - BRISBANE, The Tivoli
13 - MELBOURNE, The Forum
Tickets
Public Image Ltd
Australia and NZ
JAN
20 - Auckland, Powerstation
22 - Brisbane, The Tivoli
23 - Sydney, Enmore Theatre
24 - Melbourne, The Forum
26 – Adelaide, The Gov
28 - Perth, The Astor
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29 May 2026
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You need Fowl Weather Vein to know which way the wind blows
22 April 2026
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Feast on Blue Ash's posthumous powerpop delight
18 April 2026
-
The On and Ons' "Luminary" shines bright
13 April 2026
-
A tale of The Stooges and The Velvet Underground in high-fidelity
07 April 2026