- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 11485
Call me biased and armed with far too much hindsight for my own good, but for a brief time in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Detroit was the lesser-known but undeniable epicentre of genuine rock and roll. The music industry, as it was, might have had its moneyed roots deeply planted on America’s East and West Coasts, but the real action was occurring deep in the US Midwest.
Sure, there was Motown and its over-ground success that eventually shifted to L.A. to mutate and die but we’re talking a parallel universe here that was populated by a different cast of characters plying a blue-collar strain of music. It’s an eternal truism that musical scenes never last. The Motor City’s rock and roll had its moment but succumbed to fashion, drugs, shifting attention spans – whatever factors play to your own historical biases – and has never recovered.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 8227
There’s barely been time for a dog’s fart to clear since the last issue hit the post box so hopefully that’s a sign of life in the Unbelievably Bad camp.
- Details
- By The Barman
- Hits: 907
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: 1123
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: 1479
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: 1218
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: 790
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: 2198
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: 905
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.
- Boris and Merzbow - and the best Adelaide Festival review you'll read this year
- Don't use The C Word (that'd be cabaret) on The Tiger Lillies
- 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
Subcategories
Behind the fridge
Artifacts and reviews from days gone by.
Send us stuff to review
PO Box 334
Oatley NSW
2223 Australia
Get in touch: barman@i94bar.com
The Living Eye
SharkArm + Molly Fet Circuit
+ Pallet
MoshPit Bar, Sydney
- Aug 15 (arvo)
SharkArm + Molly Fet Circuit
Link & Pin, Woy Woy, NSW
- Aug 16 (arvo)
Smoked Salmon
Totally Sick!! Tour
AUG
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
Joeys Coop
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)
I-94 Bar Records presents
Psychotic Turnbuckles
Vinyl Single Launch
+ Spittin' Chips
+ The No Such Things
Marrickville Bowlo, NSW
- Sept 5
Tickets
New Christs
SEP
11 - Last Chance. North Melbourne, VIC
+ Penny Ikinger’s Marbles
12 -Last Chance, North Melbourne, VIC
+ Moler
19 - Heritage Hotel, Bulli, NSW
NOV
21 - The Brightside, Brisbane, QLD
+ Suicide Country Hour
+ The Mick Medew & Ursula 4
Huxton Creepers
12 Days To Paris Tour
AUG
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
SEP
8 - AUCKLAND, Powerstation
10 - SYDNEY, The Opera House
11 - BRISBANE, The Tivoli
13 - MELBOURNE, The Forum
Tickets
The Exploding Universe of Ed Kuepper
Ed Kuepper 50 Years Retrospective
RESCHEDULED
OCT
29 - Avoca Theatre, NSW
30 - Canberra, The Street Theatre, ACT
31 - Wombarra Bowlo, NSW
NOV
4 - Adelaide, The Gov, SA
5 - Melbourne, National Theatre, VIC
6 – Geelong, Barwon Heads Hotel, VIC
7 - Sydney, Factory Theatre, NSW
(matinee & evening shows)
13 - Fremantle, Freo Social, WA
15 - Brisbane, Princess Theatre, QLD
Tickets
The Saints 73-78
UK Tour with The Damned
2026
NOV
25 - Brighton, Dome
27 - London, British Airways ARC
28 - Bristol, Beacon
30 - Manchester, Academy
DEC
1 - Newcastle, O2 City Hall
2 - Derby, Vaillant Live Derby
5 - Birmingham, O2 Academy
The Saints 73-78
Australian Tour
2027
JAN
21 - Newcastle, King St
+ Chimers
22 - Sydney, Metro
+ Antenna
23 - Wollongong, Waves
+ The New Christs
29 - Brisbane, Tivoli
+ Tape / Off
30 - Gold Coast, Miami Marketta
+ Mick Medew & The Ursula 4
FEB
2 - Perth, Astor
+ Last Quokka
4 - Barwon Heads, Barwon Heads Hotel
+ dB4
5 - Melbourne, Croxton
+ Public Figures
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
Respect The Rock Australian Tour
The Hellacopters + Gluecifier
MARCH
17 – Brisbane, The Triffid
18 – Sydney, Manning Bar
19 – Melbourne, The Croxton
20 – Adelaide, Ed Castle
Tickets
Fresh Reviews
-
We need to talk about Molly
09 August 2026
-
This Lipstick Killers rock opera is one Strange Flash
26 July 2026
-
Ghosts in the machine
20 July 2026
-
Copulaters will give you a boning
08 July 2026
-
Album Number Three hits the mark for Joeys Coop
04 July 2026