Last time I was in Melbourne, I found myself back at the place I want to be interred or buried in after my passing, The Tote. While I love The Tote even on a quiet day, I was doubly thrilled to get to see the feverishly tough, fierce, and flawless femme punk D.I.Y ‘til they die, R.U.B , supporting their contemporaries, inspirations, and Quintin’s good mates from Meanjin/Brisbane, VOIID. As if this line-up wasn’t hectic enough, Marionette were also in the mix to make The Tote shake on its precarious foundations in distorted fury.
Any band that shares a split 7” with the likes of Backhand has the minted credentials to prove this is a band for OnlyBands’ audience. I was so excited about this collaboration that I went back to my hotel to change t-shirts and put my Backhand shirt on. Thankfully Dakota has been raving about R.U.B since day one, (just like with Backhand!) and with a sneering good reason. It may be a cliché statement when I say “all killer, no filler”, but when you listen to the thumping track WOMB, I guarantee you’ll find yourself in agreement,
In a dark and very loud backroom of The Tote right after their set, I managed to catch R.U.B in-between being praised by punters for their performance to ask them Five Quickfire Questions!
R.U.B are:
- Chloe: Drums
- Peri: Bass
- Dasha: Lead guitar and backing vox
- Sophie: Guitar and lead vox
1. Melbourne is littered with great places to dine and be entertained with live music. According to R.U.B where is Good For Me for me to go and do?
Sophie: Oh, that is a good question. Well first you should come to The Tote where we played tonight. Nighthawks are also great. We love Nighthawks as a venue, we had our first E.P single launch there, so we love them. Anything else… (asking the others) Punters?
Chloe: Punters is a fun music venue too. (Punters Club Fitzroy)
Dasha: I would say that the quintessential Melbourne experience, if you are into like the dive bar scene, is doing the close at Last Chance. Open till seven AM, and it’s kind of like palace where you face the grim reality of end the night because they close at seven, and across the road is Vic Markets, and as people are walking out and getting their groceries early in the morning, you come out like this delinquent and see each other and go “Oh shit, I’ve not been to bed yet!”.
Sophie: Also shout out to Cuppo Café where we have a R.U.B merch shop. It’s the best coffee in Melbourne (157 Melville Road, Brunswick).
Peri: Also shout out True North Café in Coburg, there are some real legends there. (2a Munro Street, Coburg).
OB: Great referrals there. I left Last Chance last night about three AM, so pretty early though.
Sophie: Yeah, that is an early one, even by their standards.
Editor’s note: This interview was held during the Federal election campaign and serves as a good snapshot of the voter sentiment amongst the Arts scene at the time. All views expressed are those of the artists themselves:
2. The Federal election is next month. Who do you wish would just fuck right off and Slither Away?
Dasha: Ha, I think you already know the answer to that one! You can probably guess our answer! Fuck off Dutton!
Sophie: Dutton is in my old electorate, which is diabolical, which is where I am from. Just a repulsive man. He can get fucked!
All: Yep! He can get fucked!
OB: Cutters said the same thing in a similar question I gave them. So, we are all wanting him to get the fuck out.
Sophie: Yeah, he is just a disgusting man.
Appropriately enough, the majority of Australia also agreed with this sentiment.
3. Conversely, who is a Good Bloke or person in this scene?
Sophie: Look, I feel like femmes to the front always, I’m going to say. Just to subvert that, the best kind of person I’m going to say I look up to in the scene is Jelena from Outright, just always just fucking pushing in the scene. Jelz is one of the first women I ever saw in heavy music and she made me think it was possible for me to scream. So, for me it’s Jelz.
Peri: I’d like to shout out Nat from Encierro, probably my favourite heavy vocalist in Melbourne. And also, just a really staunch activist, always pushing for outcomes for all different marginalised groups. Always speaking up and never being afraid to say stuff. I think that is really cool.
4. Imagine this scenario: You’ve got unlimited resources (as OnlyBands is going to invest millions into R.U.B) and enable you to Bury Yourself in cash. But it has to be spent on the band’s future. What would you do with the money?
Sophie: First of all, where are you getting this money as media? And punk media at that!
OB: Oh, we don’t have that. It’s all pro-bono, for the love of live Aus music.
(Editor’s note: The actual answer to Sophie’s question is either money laundering or an angel investor, we are taking applications for both.)
Sophie: Oh, good question. Investing in the band, huh?
Chloe: I reckon we’d just buy a load of really fat equipment to make us sound even better. And then we don’t do anything else with the money, because we are still D.I. Y.
Sophie: Yeah, my first reaction is to buy an actual 6505 head, not the mini head that I play with. But then I just thought, yeah mutual aid as well. Just helping others.
Dasha: Yes! Redistribute those funds, we all have full time jobs, we can just give it to others that need help more than us and what we stand for.
OB: That is a very solid R.U B ethos response on that one.
5. You have to follow me on this one: R.U.B, One Out, Good for Me, Nice, Better In My Head, how do I use this in a sentence during conversation with a Religious Man if you want to make them want to Slither Away?
Sophie: Ok, wait let me read that one. It’s Good For Me to be able to fuck off away from my old experience of religion, which wasn’t very nice, and it’s better for my head now to be someone that is out of that…
Dasha: I think that made the Religious Man Slither Away, which is honestly probably the ideal outcome.
OB: (I share the experience of the C.O.F.F.I.N gig at the Wallaby Hotel on the Gold Coast where Benny stated, “This is community… everywhere we go”, when talking about live music)
Dasha: Oh absolutely!
Sophie: Yeah, we can make a new community that isn’t conditioned on people behaving a certain way according to religions.
Chloe: And not based on shame and control.
Peri: More about celebrating each other’s differences, and being weirdos together. Which is ultimately what we are about, I think really.
Sophie: A substitution for maybe a more punitive community we used to live in and now we can free ourselves together.
(The interview is kindly and politely interrupted by Jake delivering a fresh box of cupcakes, which provided the perfect ending to this interview)
Sophie: Thanks Jake. You are an angel! Happy birthday again.
Peri: I would love one because it’s vegan… Vegan cupcakes, what a treat!
Sophie: Then we all have to go to help load out.
OB: Thanks for squeezing me in, and for sharing the story pre-interview about how important VOIID are to you, and how the first time you saw them it made you want to join a punk band, and how they encouraged you to be so successful. It is a great message to share with the femmes to the front philosophy.
Sophie: Thank you so much, yeah, we love VOIID so much. Thank you OnlyBands!
Thanks to Brendan Frost (@brendanfrost) once again for these amazing photos, best on ground out there in Melbourne!
Make sure to give R.U.B a listen below:
