The New Christs
The On and Ons
Marrickville Bowling Club, NSW
Friday, 6 June 2025

It’s fitting, in many ways, that the New Christs assaulted the beaches of Marrickville in Sydney’s Inner-Western Delta tonight on the 81^st anniversary of D-Day. Your correspondent on the frontline can report that no ammunition was spared in a fiery, two-set bracket show that was their second-last before an August tour of the UK and Europe.

The New Christs pulled a full-house on a cold Sydney Friday night and put on an intense performance that peeled the Copperart panels from the beloved Bowlo’s ceiling.

The Johnnys
"Live in Lyon CD Launch"
Penny Ikinger’s Marbles
The Vibrajets
The Tote, Collingwood, VIC
Saturday, 31 May 2025

Hello I-94 Barflies! Well, I dragged my skinny white arse from The Farmhouse down to Melbourne on the bloody bus (500 kilometres) last Saturday morning for The Johnnys’ release of their CD. “Live In Lyon 1990”,  at their gig at the Tote Hotel.

And let me tell you that it was worth every fucking painful kilometre.

Ed Kuepper
D.C. Cross
Camelot Lounge, Marrickville, NSW
Thursday April 25, 2025
PHOTOS: Judi Dransfield Kuepper photos

Ed Kuepper stormed across Australia last year with The Saints ‘73-’78, reclaiming the legacy of his partnership with the late Chris Bailey and the band they created when Ed was a 14-year-old on detention at school.

The Saints ‘73-’78 withstood the usual uproar from purists and the same arguments that had been wheeled out by fans of Queen, Dead Kennedys and the Sex Pistols when their original members were part of reconfigured line-ups.  The point with The Saints '73-'78 (and The Aints! before them) was that Ed was the bloke who co- wrote the songs and the one who had been tearing down musical walls since the original band split.

The Lemonheads
Crocodylus
Enmore Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Tuesday, May 20, 2025

The cars were not flying up King Street but it didn’t really startle me.

For a decade or so ago, following an apparent increase in alcohol related violence, the New South Wales Government introduced changes to liquor licensing laws in selective suburbs, mainly around Kings Cross, affecting entry into late night venues. Perhaps it did two things: shift the problem to Newtown, and decimate the local Kings Cross businesses, many of which were run by John Ibrahim, which was perhaps the intention all along.

But Newtown is now certainly busy to the point of traffic standstill on a Tuesday night, so much so I get out of my Uber early and walk the last kilometre, happily outpacing the cars to meet my buddy Pete.

_{Ripley Hood fronts Velvet Parade.}

Velvet Parade
The Cold Field
Electric Badger
The Metro, Adelaide
Saturday, May 3, 2025

In his recent review of “Adjustment Disorder”, The Institutionalist’s new album, the reviewer states: "Post-punk is a stupid term. It’s even dumber than Punk. But everybody can get their head around it, right?"

Well, the algos on the various streaming/attention services certainly require such absurd categorisation to flourish. Partly because you know, a fuckin' robot is a fuckin' robot, with no concept of reality - because the terms of reality are defined by humans, and robots can't think, much less define shit. Can you imagine a robot, all on its own, suggesting that a ferry be called “Boaty McBoatface”. for example?

You should be able to walk into a pub with a bunch of bands playing, like I did last night to see Electric Badger, The Cold Field, and the Velvet Parade, and, instead of identifying what genre each band was, to simply get down and enjoy the music, the performers, and the quite varied expanse of what is, essentially, forms of rock 'n' roll.

 _{Dom Mariani and Jules Matthews.}

The Stems
The Rinehearts
Sydney Crowbar
Thursday, April 24, 2025

An annual run of shows by The Stems should be inscribed indelibly on the Australian musical calendar. Better still, make it bi-annual.

Last year, The Stems notched their 40th anniveresary and marked it with gigs all around Australia, and a tour of Europe. This show, on the eve of Anzac Day, the national day of remembrance, brought out a crop of (mostly)  rock and roll soldiers, keen to relive their 1980s youth. All looked comfortable in the knowledge that a public holiday the next morning meant most wouldn’t have to front up at a workplace. 

More than most of their peers, The Stems have a sound that’s timeless. Rooted in the ‘60s, riddled with hooks and melodies, the songs ride on the back of a powerful engine room of co-founders Jules Matthews and Dave Shaw, wrapped in Dom Mariani’s rich vocal and peppered by guitars.