It was a big night for Brisbane music last Thursday as Hungry Kids Of Hungary returned to The Zoo to play their first headlining show in over a year.
Playing a selection of songs from their forthcoming record along with some old favourites, the Brisbane band played an hour set with support from fellow locals Gung Ho and the incredibly busy Jeremy Neale.
Jeremy Neale and the Hollywood Hearts, as he introduces them, take to the stage at 8pm for their very old school style rock n roll set. A great thumping start is pretty common for the band and that is no different tonight as they rip into their short set with chest pounding drums and great rhythm.
With not much more than a bit of head bopping from most of the band, Neale lets loose a few times to shred on his guitar, to the point where a string is broken, holding the set up for a short time before the crisis is averted with a replacement guitar from another band.
Playing a few more songs and even bringing up a ‘random’ sax player up on stage from the crowd, the band finish another great set in front of the small crowd.
Next to the stage were the much cleaner sounds of Brissie indie band Gung Ho. With a lot less distortion and rawness but just as much energy, this three-piece get off to a good start with crystal clear instruments.
However as lead vocalist Oliver Duncan starts singing, his vocals are muffled and at times hard to hear over the rest of the band. As the set goes on, what started out exciting soon becomes the opposite with the songs just running into each other and sounding a bit monotonous.
Opening with “The Vacationer” at 10pm is Hungry Kids Of Hungary, bringing a new excitement to the venue. With quite a few more punters through the doors now, the band play an hour long set filled with a good mixture of strong guitar riffs, solid drumming and very nice keys work. Asking the crowd to bare with them for the new songs, Kane Mazlin leads the band through the set with some very strong vocals that at no point throughout the night look like they are going to give out.
As the set goes on, the band loosens up a bit and the crowd get more and more vocal in their support. Ripping through “One By One” and “Good Times” leading towards the end of their set, the band finally wrap it up on the mover “Let You Down”.
After only leaving the stage for what seemed like seconds the band return for their encore and finish the night proving that even after the long break they’ve still got it.
