With four bands on the bill, the legendary ‘true crime’ pub Bendigo Hotel hosted a night of hard rock and heavy metal (for those wondering about the pub’s true crime history you need only wander into the men’s toilets). Easily the best value for money gig going around on a Thursday night, it is a shame people don’t wander down the extra block from the Tote more often. Even still, the hardcore fans attended and that is what matters.
Melbourne’s self-described ‘heart attack’ rock band, Street Fangs were up first to melt the faces of those who got there early. A relatively new band that’s been gigging regularly, it would be worth catching these guys another time around town.
Five piece Brisbane group Hack were next with a very polished hard rock sound. With one member sporting an anarchy t-shirt it was no surprise to hear badass song titles being introduced like ‘Fly Away Acid Bird’ and ‘Walking With The Dead.’ A bit perturbed by the low audience attendance the band kindly gave out free CDs afterward.
Take Your Own took the stage and the frontman let out a low, “Aww yeah, this is the shit,” before the first harsh sound of the guitars started. While not as polished as Husk, the band made up for that by putting so much energy into their performance the frontman leapt off stage at one moment to run to the bar and skull a jug of water. Some epic guitar solos finished a high impact set, that also included a Frenzal Rhomb cover.
The SideTracked Fiasco’s Facebook page precedes them, with their cover photo showing them covered in blood skulking in a cage, their stage presence was much more approachable – if approachable means the drummer was dressed as the mad hatter and another was wearing a Mexican wrestling mask. The lead singer had disappeared during the supports to finally emerge amongst the attendees covered in purple paint, barefoot and wearing only shorts and a beanie. It was evident that these guys were going to surpass all three supports in the heavy rock stakes.
Treating the whole room as a stage, the lead singer jumped around attendees with ease, and when the song ‘Beautiful’ (from their recent self-titled EP) was performed, he began to spin which revealed a rubber duck hanging from his mic, which did manage to hit one audience member, fortunately they were too busy head banging to notice.
– Hannah Joyner
