Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice have dropped a surprise live album to commemorate one of Melbourne’s finest music venues, and it feels like an eerily fitting day to release it.
The 2022 ARIA Awards take place in Sydney tonight, a celebration of the past year in Australian music, but it feels like a ceremonial procession existing in a vacuum: while the glitzy night will celebrate artists mainly at an untouchable level, the country’s music industry is struggling underneath.
It was announced earlier this month that Melbourne’s excellent electronic nightclub Colour will close after just three operational years; Sydney’s iconic rock ‘n’ roll spot Frankie’s Pizza by the Slice is about to shut its doors.
Insurmountable pandemic costs and a lack of government support also nearly caused The Curtin, one of Melbourne’s most historic live music venues, to meet its demise.
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If the 16-year-old watering hole had closed, it would have felt like a cruelly momentous moment in Australia’s music history, but thankfully The Curtin seems poised to live on after months of rightful pressure from music fans and union groups. It was, by all accounts, a close call.
A DIY punk band forever ensconced in their local music community, Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice know the value of The Curtin. Today’s surprise album, Remember The Future? LIVE FROM THE FUTURE, is a live recording of their album launch at the venue last December, which was poignantly their first full-capacity show after two long years of COVID lockdowns and restrictions.
While the album has been mastered by Nao Anzai (CLAMM, Mildlife) and mixed by Dougal Shaw, none of the sheer intensity of the live setting is lost. This is how a band like Dr Sure’s – all powerful fury and electric energy – should be heard.
It’s mostly tracks from their Remember The Future? LP, but a cover of ‘Carol’ by another riotous Melbourne punk band, The Peep Tempel, thrillingly closes the live set; as Shaw howls the words out, his fierce passion for the former band is palpable.
Dr Sure’s surprise album is available for absolutely nothing via Bandcamp – “a gift to commemorate an iconic venue and to celebrate the Naarm/Melbourne music community,” as the band writes.
And in a lovely turn of events, Dr Sure’s will return to The Curtin this Friday, November 25th, almost exactly one year since their surprise album was recorded (tickets here). Expect a raucous night of excellent punk music and fond farewells. Long live The Curtin. Long live Dr Sure’s.
Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice’s Remember The Future? LIVE FROM THE FUTURE is out now.
