The city of Brisbane has always had a bad habit of tearing down historical buildings and replacing them with apartment blocks and office spaces. The local council and developers might as well be skipping down the street holding hands at this point. But this is a music magazine and not one about local politics, so I’ll save you a whole rant on that issue. Instead, let’s have a look at what happens when you preserve some local heritage and use it to support what makes Brisbane great.
In this case, you get the Princess Theatre. A sister venue to The Tivoli, the Princess Theatre has stood in Woolloongabba since the 19th century. Ownership of the heritage-listed building has changed many times over the years and it spent the latter half of the 20th century being used for anything but entertainment. In 2021, the Sleswick brothers purchased the venue and decided to return the place to its roots. They’ve made good use of the place too. The Open Season Program is now in its third year running and brings some amazing international and homegrown acts to the Princess and The Tivoli.
Last weekend, I was lucky enough to witness two of Brisbane’s finest acts take to the stage at the Princess and prove to everyone once again that this city’s biggest strength is its music.
Night
1: Full Flower Moon Band, Gut Health, and The Unknowns (August 11th)
Tonight, it’s Open Season again at the Princess and I’m on the hunt for a good time. It would have been well over a year and a half between visits to the venue for me. I was there for its inaugural run of shows at the King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard residency which was unfortunately cut short by coronavirus. Afterwards, there just weren’t any bands that I wanted to see who were due to play there. That said, when I passed through its doors on Friday night, the venue felt bizarrely familiar to me, like visiting a place from a distant childhood memory.
First cab off the rank for the weekend were local rockers The Unknowns. The Unknowns play old school rock n’ roll with a punk attitude. Combine the sugary love song melodies of The Beatles with the rawness and speed of bands like The Saints and Radio Birdman and you get a good idea of what The Unknowns are about. If you catch The Unknowns play live, you might recognize frontman Josh Hardy and guitarist Eamon Sandwith from their work in The Chats but rest assured, The Unknowns are an entirely different beast.
The first half of the set is made up of songs from their sophomore album East Coast Low. The band kick things off with Shot Down and then rip through tracks like Dianne, Rid of You, Crying, Beat Me, and Thinking About You. The second half of their set is filled with their older songs like Dressed to Kill, Would You Wait For Me, and Oh Yep.
Josh really wears his heart on his sleeve in his music, singing alternately about being head over heels in love and the ensuing heartbreak. His stage presence is a bit more restrained than usual but he busts out some of the wild, flashy guitar moves that he’s known for near the end of the set. I wasn’t really familiar with The Unknowns until I got to know Josh and Eamon personally but since then they’ve become one of my favourite local bands. They always have so much energy on stage and I’ve never seen them play a bad show. Whenever The Chats aren’t touring The Unknowns always are, so make sure to check them out whenever they’re around
Up next were Melbourne/Naarm art rockers Gut Health, who flew all the way up for their first ever show here in the sunshine state. They’re a six-piece band who have two percussionists and a second guitarist who also doubles up on synths. It’s a lot of people on stage for an opener band, especially considering their drummer is playing on a drum kit set up in front of headliner’s drum kit, but they make it work.
Gut Health have a very quirky and jammy style. Their vocalist Athina has so much confidence, energy and charisma on stage but she leaves plenty of room for the band to launch into these jangly, improvisational, Devo-like instrumental passages. For a band with so many members, I have to say that it’s impressive that the bass cuts right through the mix and plays such an important part of their sound.
The band tear through tracks from their debut EP Electric Chrome Party Girl as well as plenty of new songs making their live Brisbane debut. Some bands have songs which aren’t really about anything but Gut Health take the complete opposite approach. They play tracks about drag queens, memory foam pillows, and Indigenous Australian rights one after the other. It very much fits their eclectic style. They leave the stage having won over plenty of new fans, including yours truly.
Capping off the night in style are the Full Flower Moon Band. Brisbane’s rising stars are fresh off Splendour In The Grass and hungry to play to the hometown crowd at their biggest headlining show yet. The band have had a truly rocket powered ascent since the release of their sophomore album Diesel Forever. Their songwriting is essentially unmatched in our scene at the moment. Their sound is bluesy, moody, and slow burning. Their songs take their time to build and build before capping things off with a roaring finale. There’s a very cinematic quality about the music which I think owes to Kate’s background in filmmaking. It really aims to capture the dark side of rock n’ roll’s heyday.
The set starts out rather unexpectedly with local poet Liam Boue giving a live reading of one of his poems. The moment he reads out his last stanza, Full Flower hit the stage and launch right into it. They play all the hits from Diesel Forever tonight including Power and Hurt Nobody along with crowd favourites like Roadie and New Rocket. We also get a few new tracks from their forthcoming third album. My favourite track to hear live has to be Highway. It’s a song that encapsulates a distinct sense of yearning and infatuation with life on the road which throws in a sneaky AC/DC reference for good measure.
As usual the band are incredibly in tune with each other and put on an amazing show. Frontwoman Kate Dillon has an electrifying stage presence as she dances around like she’s possessed by the music itself. Their drummer Luke is similarly wild and thrashy. He’s a metalhead at heart and attacks the kit like Philthy Phil Taylor, even when playing much softer music. Tonight is a special occasion as well, and not just because it’s the biggest headlining show they’ve played yet. Full Flower are joined on stage for a few songs by their chorale, composed of Asha Jeffries, Ryan from Platonic Sex, Rosa Mack, and Miranda vs Arizona. They lend some backing vocals that add to the moody ambience that many of their songs have.
Full Flower isn’t a mosh-y sort of band but someone didn’t tell the crowd that tonight. They usually play Waiting For My Car live at a fairly frantic pace and it’s then that things kick off at ground zero with surprising intensity. I’m no stranger to a mosh but I’m fairly drunk at this point so it catches me off guard. They then launch into their last song of the set, NY-LA, and I end up knocked flat on my ass in quick order. First hit of the weekend and I’m immediately energized by the pain. The crowd call for an encore and after a few moments, Kate returns to the stage with her guitar to sing us a solo tune before thanking us one last time for all coming out. For most people that’s it for the Princess this weekend but for me, my weekend is just beginning…
Night 2: DZ Deathrays, Press Club, Dust (August 12th)
Alright, so full disclosure, I work for DZ Deathrays now so I’m definitely more biased on them than I used to be. That said, I’m determined to give you guys play by play without fanboying too much. If you’re into the indie and punk scene in Australia, even just casually, DZ Deathrays are a band that need no introduction. With 15 years of touring under their belts, they’re undisputedly Australian rock royalty at this point, and they’ve only gotten even better this year.
Fresh off the release off their incendiary sixth album, R.I.F.F, DZ are touring the album with a new member who’s already made his mark on the Australian scene. Yes, that’s Luke Henrey from Violent Soho playing bass for them now. Having started out as a two-piece, it’s slightly strange but also concurrently natural progression that they now have four members. I spend the first bit of my night doing interviews with fans in the beer garden for their new label DZ Worldwide. I’ve been looking to get some insight into what the fans remember most fondly about the band and some of the stories I hear are pretty impressive. DZ super fan Ethan has seen them 18 times after having his fanaticism kindled when he saw the band open for Foo Fighters.
First up are dust, a post-punk five-piece hailing from Newcastle. They’re a band of five fairly young blokes on their biggest tour yet and they’re clearly thirsty to put on a good show. If you see dust live, the first thing you’ll probably notice about the band is that they have a saxophone player. Not exactly a common instrument even in the post punk world. Their faster and heavier tracks fill the WAAX-shaped hole in my heart quite nicely. The slower, more saxophone heavy tracks are very jazzy and a bit experimental. The band clearly have some ambition when it comes to their songwriting, which I think will definitely serve to set them apart from the pack as they grow as a band.
Next up are Melbourne indie-punk darlings Press Club. Last time I saw them was late 2019 and the years since haven’t dulled their frenetic live act. They start out the set with Eugene and Coward Street but things really kick off during Separate Houses. Nat is easily one of the most daring frontwomen that I’ve seen, she leaps into the crowd with reckless abandon and gets into it as much as the audience does. Afterwards, they launch into Headwreck and we get our first mosh pit of the night as the crowd cry out every single lyric. The band keep the energy going throughout the rest of their set as Nat careens around the stage with practiced ease, doing a cartwheel at one point without missing a single beat.
I head backstage after Press Club to say hi to DZ and wish them luck for their up coming set. It’s a swanky backstage here at this place, to which Iain from Press Club agrees heartily when I mention it. This place was originally intended to be a stage theater so all the bells and whistles from that day are still there, including vanity mirrors and plush furniture. The main room even has a pool table! The whole gang was there that night, including BC from Dune Rats and Anji from VOIID. BC tells me during his interview that one of his fondest memories of DZ is when they took Dune Rats on their first tour and Shane got angry at him for littering ha-ha-ha. Nice to know this band is environmentally conscious as well.
The clock soon hits ten and DZ Deathrays stride onto stage to thunderous applause. Tonight’s set list is absolutely loaded with fan favourites and the band themselves are absolutely on fire. They have an energy and stage presence tonight that would put plenty of stadium rock bands to shame. Lachlan and Shane thrash their long hair about, regularly hoist their guitars up to the sky, and strain every bit of spectacle out of each shred. Simon’s arms (and hair) are a wild flurry of movement as he hammers his drums with a look of absolute joy on his face.
The moment they launch into the opening riff of Hope For The Best, it’s immediate chaos. The pit opens up and the crowd get right IN-TO-IT. They play about five or so tracks from the album but the rest of the set tonight is made up of tracks from across their whole discography. No Sleep and Cops Capacity are songs that I don’t think they’ve played in years at this point. The crowd obviously love them and things get pretty brutal very quickly. I still have a massive bruise/welt/scrap on my shoulder from being knocked over in the mosh but not fully falling over and ending up lifted off my feet while pressed against other crowd members. During Cops Capacity, Shane abandons his guitar and walks right up the crowd with the mic to get some crowd vocals going, which I don’t think he’s done before.
The band said that they expected to see me up on top of the crowd during the set and I decide to put my triple A pass to good use. I dive right over the barrier several times and straight into the chaos. The only time I’ve felt more powerful was during the Paranoid music video shoot when I had the camera on my chest. Shred For Summer causes a wall of death to happen right before the opening scream and the final chorus but the crowd have also already figured to do the same right before the last part of King B. I think R.I.F.F will definitely have plenty more moments like that when the rest of the tracks are played live.
Looking back on the set, I realise once again that DZ are such a rock band. They’ve got all the wild moves, the crazy hair, the on-stage bravado, and the songs to back it up. Their earlier stuff is very house-party due to their origins but R.I.F.F has songs with anthemic choruses that are practically begging to be played live and loud to big fucking crowds. At the same time, they’re also aware of the dynamics of their songs and their sets. They know when to slow things down so they can build things up again and cap things off with a bang.
Luke adds so much to their live act as well. As a veteran of the scene himself, he’s already an absolutely captivating performer and is a natural fit for the rest of the band. He’s ecstatic on-stage as he whips his hair about and his bass fills out their live sound so much. The set ends with Gina Works At Hearts, which immediately causes a frenzy amongst the crowd. Flying limbs, fists and bodies abound as the familiar buzzsaw riff of Gina snarls across the band room.
Even after the song ends with the final “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”, the crowd are still absolutely rabid for more songs. The encore chant goes for about five minutes, but band do have to disappoint them however. After the set they’ve just played, they’re absolutely wiped and I don’t blame them for calling it a night. Simon goes home afterwards but the rest of us head to the Empire Hotel to chill out for a bit. We have a couple more drinks there before we all gradually head off back home. I end the night battered, bruised, and feeling like I’ve had a royally good time.
Aftermath
I’m twenty-four now and starting to slow down a bit so I’m still beat days after the gig. I do think I pull up a bit better from hangovers though because I remember now that Berocca and Gatorade are my friend. For a lot of us, last weekend was the culmination of all the hard work that we’ve put in over the years. Full Flower Moon Band and the team behind them at Tiny Minds Agency have been working tirelessly for years to get the band to where they are today. The past few years for the industry have been rough so it’s impressive to see Full Flower come up and headline a place like the Princess.
Over in the DZ Worldwide camp, we’ve been buried in this R.I.F.F campaign for many months now so it’s been great to get out there and see DZ play the songs live. The industry is always a bit stop start like this, you’ll spend long periods in the background slowly chipping away at something. Then there’ll be some sort of trigger point and suddenly everything is happening and you barely have room the catch your breath. Right now, it’s definitely full speed ahead for everyone who made the weekend possible. To take a phrase from Full Flower, we’re all on the Highway now and in a sweet place with rock n’ roll.
Massive shoutout to Jeordie Davis at @humandelay and Kelsey Doyle at kelseyjdyole.com for all of the amazing photos in this article!