Hailing from the sleepy coastal village of Clifton, LSF (FKA Left Side Filter) arrived in Brisbane on the same sweltering night as the newly revived Valley Crawl. Their show at the Junk Bar was a first for the band but a homecoming for their bassist that night Finn who was perhaps more used to the general blanket of humidity that you just can’t escape for much of the year here.
I wasn’t hugely familiar with the band beforehand but when I first heard Malibu, I remember thinking to myself that this would have done absolute numbers on MTV back in the day. Many bands have been compared to the grunge giants over the years but LSF take that influence and make it entirely their own. Their sophomore album Haunted embraces the same experimentation that you can hear on In Utero, with the band exploring a whole new dimension to their songwriting and adding elements of new genres into the mix. Just before doors opened, I sat down with the band at the Junk Bar upstairs to learn a bit more about these coastie boys and give them a warm welcome to Brisbane with our Five Quickfire Questions.
LSF are:
- Blake Lauricella: Guitar, vocals
- Caleb Mckinnirey: Drums
- Sam Allen: Guitar, backing vocals
- Finnigan Daly (not interviewed): Bass
1. You’ve just stepped off the plane to beautiful sunny Brisbane on your first tour, so tell me, What’s On Your Mind?
Blake: Ooh. We were trying to figure out how to get into our hotel. That was the main thing on our mind.
Caleb: Yeah, just trying to sort out the Airbnb was pretty much a nightmare.
Blake: We were gonna be homeless and stuck in the streets of Brisbane which was absolutely fine. Cause it’s warm enough to do so. But yeah. And Sam just really wanted to go get a beer and food.
Sam: Yeah I was very very hungry and ready for a nice schooner of beer in sunny Brisbane.
Blake: We got Resch’s. Which is a New South Wales beer, but it was good that Queensland have [their heads screwed on straight].
Sam: What we have back home, well all throughout Australia really, is a Resch’s Appreciation Society tag. And I brought mine specifically just cause of that in case I ran into a pub and the first pub that we went to across the road from our accommodation, bang, cheap Reschs.
[He pulls out his key chain and there it is!]
Blake: Resch’s refreshes man.
2. So it’s Halloween Night and you’re being chased by a horror movie villain, let’s say Michael Myers, who’s the first person you call to help bail you out of this situation?
Blake: I think I would actually call Ghostface Killah from the movie Scream.
OB: Ah yes, yes.
Blake: Which as you can see across the road here (he points to a movie poster)… Scream 7 is coming out… That’s actually a movie we made and produced.
Sam: Real keen for that movie actually. A lot of time and effort’s been put into putting out Scream 7 so it’s gonna be great.
Blake: We worked hard on this movie. Caleb’s actually the one who’s the Ghostface Killah it.
Caleb: I’d probably just call my mum.
OB: You (Caleb/Ghostface Killah) did quite well on that movie actually.
Caleb: Thanks, my mum.
3. Has there even been a time or situation in your life where you felt like you were Mr Temporary?
Blake: Every day, man. Every day. That’s the point, I guess. You’re always temporary. That’s the vibe. Not for Caleb though.
Caleb: No, I have no idea what that song’s about. I don’t relate to it at all. It’s a good song though.
Blake: He doesn’t relate to it. Caleb’s gonna live forever!
4. Is there something that you’re so good at that you can do it On Your Own when it would usually be a two-man job? Alternatively, what’s something you never want to do All Alone again?
Blake: Okay, so Sam can do the Macarena and the Nutbush at the same time. Which is a two-man job, usually.
Sam: But I can do that all on my own. We had a studio at this little spot near where we kind of lived at the time down in the South Coast. And I spent like two hours just like, I didn’t even know why but, I’d spent like two hours just standing there trying to learn how to do the Macarena and the Nutbush at the same time. So obviously the Macarena is like the upper body and the Nutbush is lower body and anyway, we got it and it was all kinda caught on camera too.
Blake: And then he just performed it in front of Hamish Blake from Hamish and Andy. Yeah he performed it for him, and he loved it.
OB: He loved it?! Alright well shoutout Hamish Blake!
Blake: Yeah check the background. (To Sam) Where’s your phone background?
[Sam whips out his phone]
OB: Ah there they are!
Sam: The King!
OB: What about you boys, is there anything that comes to mind?
Caleb: Uh, I’d probably say bobsledding. I wouldn’t bobsled.
OB: You wouldn’t bobsled all alone? Fair enough.
Blake: Because it’s a two man job. We’ve seen it today, we’re watching the women’s bobsledding in the Winter Olympics. And there’s one person just at the back with their head down like this just hugging the person in front.
Caleb: So I wouldn’t do it by myself.
OB: Yes, definitely a two man job.
Sam: I’m gonna jump in on that one too.
5. If you were trapped in an Elevator for a week straight, and you could only listen to one album the whole time, what would it be?
Blake: White noise. (Everybody laughs) Nah, um what’s one album?
Sam: Mine’s Grace by Jeff Buckley. It’s like the definite answer for kinda any album. Yeah or Thirsty Merc. Just for vibes.
Blake (singing): Give me twenty good reasons. Yeah just Twenty Reasons Why over and over and over again in the elevator.
OB: He gets his royalties every summer. Three months of the year. That’s when he makes his money.
Blake: If I was yeah if I was listening to Thirsty Merc in that elevator I don’t think I’d be leaving.
Sam: I’d be crying to like In The Summertime and just like crying, thinking about like how good the weather is outside in Brisbane just stuck in a fucking elevator.
Thankfully the band were quite able to enjoy the rest of the balmy Brisbane summer night, Thirsty Merc eat your heart out. Much like the season, I hope that they’ll be back in Brisbane to play another red hot summer set sooner rather than later.
You can listen to Haunted below:
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