By Steve “Shelvo” Shelverton
Creeeeeaaak! That’s the sound of 2023 slamming the door shut behind me as I look towards setting a personal best for attending live gigs in 2024. Reflecting back on 2023, I realise once again why I bloody love Aus music. There’s this cathartic sense of purpose that I feel when I go to these shows. Over time I’ve developed these wonderful friendships with artists, their support crew, and the punters.
I love meeting fellow music tragics like myself, who shape their social calendar around the best musical talent on earth. These are my kind of people, all day every day! And it was these such people showed up en masse to Miami Marketta on the Gold Coast to attend 2023’s Best Night Ever, a festival which more than lives up to its name. With such a stacked line-up and two stages with no clashes, it was bound to be a rip-snorting good time!
The Sex Guys
As we’re driving down the M1 with no aircon in my Defender, windows down and DZ Deathrays blaring out the speakers, Quintin says that we’ve got to get there in time to see the rather creatively named The Sex Guys.
We arrived just in time to see the local Gold Coast lads start out the festivities but calling them the openers would be doing them a disservice. This three-piece punk trio were relentless on stage with their deep growling bass, pounding drums, and salty Gold Coast guitar spray. This is totally my sort of scene. Fast and furious guitars with high-voltage, caffeinated, coronary inducing screams in songs that last two minutes or less.
Quintin was on point as ever, this is a band not to be missed, bring on more of The Sex Guys in 2024.
Pist Idiots
As my gig loving friend Dakota can attest to, the sheer delight of screaming ‘Chant this!’ felt like it would never happen. Pist Idiots haven’t played in Queensland in quite a while. After her three previous attempts to see them resulted in their gigs being cancelled due to Covid, border closures, and severe weather events, Dakota made up for it by seeing them twice in one weekend. That’s some serious dedication, stay blessed Dakota!
My body was buzzing all the way through the set as the Pist Idiots launched through epic bangers like Juliette, Idiocracy, 99 Bottles, and Leave It At That. It was fucking tight! Frontman and guitarist Jack Griffith stomped about on stage in his signature barefooted style, bold and lathered in sweat, bare chested in a pair of well dusted Canterbury footy shorts. Despite the long time between drinks up here, the crowd still knew every lyric and sang the choruses as loud as the band did.
Dr. Sure’s Unusual Practice
Starting out the festivities at the Studio 56 stage were probably the most unique band on the line up. I’ve seen them previously in orange boiler suits at a Bad Dreems gig this year, echoing the image of one of their clear influences, Devo.
They’re chaotic experimental punk five piece with a central nucleus that is their mad genius frontman Dougal Shaw! He plays his keyboard like a mad scientist behind a chemistry set, while strapped into his mechanical straight jacket of a guitar. There are cables strangling microphone stands and eclectic pedals littering the floor being stamped on like he’s pursuing a rogue spider. Amidst the pure punk pandemonium of their set, he manages to blow his amp.
Despite this, band just kept on rolling, like it was just another day in the lab with an electrical experiment gone awry as they attempt to reanimate the dead. They already have quite the discography under their belts but there are two tracks that stood out to me during their set. Outside Looking In is this kooky electro feast, giving radiation burns and harnessed confusion to demand attention. Super Speedy Zipper Whipper was one of the crowd favourites. It’s creepy, spookpuncular, and comes right for your jugular.
Le Shiv
Le Shiv is a band that I’ve seen around before but this time, they really seemed to have a hit their stride. Their sound is rather eclectic, drawing upon elements of alt rock, indie rock, psych rock, and pop. Lush synths, squelchy guitars, poppy melodies, and groovy rhythms are usually how I’d describe their songs. They’re usually fairly chill but there are moments where the tempo picks up the pace.
On stage however, the energy level was much higher. The band’s set was thrashy, vibrant, and full of colour. They were flailing their long hair about, belting out their lyrics into the mic, and strutting around the stage as they gave their guitars a serious workout, straining every last bit of noise out of their instruments.
And the crowd loved it. The band have some serious talent for writing these anthemic choruses that have everyone bellowing their lyrics back at them in short order. They play some of their newer songs which explore the heavier, denser side of psychedelic rock. Where’s My Money? managed to fill the room with noise and verve every time the chorus kicked in.
WAAX
Maz Devita is an unstoppable force, just raring to go and striding out onto stage with a whirlwind energy that blows you right off your feet. I was taken aback by the way she ripped straight into the set with such ferocity, playfully bounding across the stage from one speaker stack to the other. It’s very clear why WAAX 2.0 is here and out into the world now, because there’s nothing out there that can hold her back.
In Maz’s own words, “This industry tried to kill me, but I am a relentless bitch!”. I stood there upfront with Dakota, helping to hold Maz up as she approached us on the barricade. I felt bad as I didn’t know the lyrics to Read Receipts and felt quite vulnerable with Maz staring me down! Most Hated Girl and Help Me Hell were an absolute fury, that everyone (myself included) knew the lyrics too. Throughout the set, Maz was adored and adorned by her legion of fans on the barrier with gifts and photos.
Bad Dreems
When Bad Dreems take to the stage, I always make sure that I’m front and centre for it. They’re a collective of working-class pub poets. There’s just something about grimy intensity of their roaring vocals which passionately rail against ignorance and suffering that’s so hard to beat. Their frontman Benny sings their songs with brawling tempo of a man possessed.
After strategically placing the Aboriginal flag on stage as an anchor point for their centre of gravity, the band casually launch into the anthemic Dumb Ideas. They then played two newer tracks Mansfield 6.0 and Southern Heat before launching back into older songs like Gutful, Hoping For, and Bogan Pride to appease the long-time Low-Lifers. At this point the crowd were absolutely amped, heaving and feeding off of Benny’s energy.
At one point, an iconic moment unfolds before me and damn it I didn’t get a photo! Luke Henery (Violent Soho, DZ Deathrays, and Total Pace) and David ‘Bunny Man’ Herrington (sound tech extraordinaire) were both vying to get the best photo of the Baddies at front of stage, almost colliding with each other in their zeal.
A track that particularly stands out to me is Jack. The song is like a rear-view mirror of my blue-collar upbringing in the 80’s and 90’s. It’s a confronting reminder of our colonialist past as a country, and cries out to change the white-washed narrative that many people were taught in history class. It strives to make listeners aware of the past trauma and present-day inequality faced by First Nations people.
Further on in the set, Benny jumps up on the barricade to the battle cries of Cuffed and Collared. Everyone loves his bone jarring anti-establishment call to arms as the crowd tries to draw him inwards to the cyclonic mosh. Bad Dreems closed their set out with their absolutely furious cover of My Pal by God. At that point, Benny was wrapping his head in a red towel, either to absorb the perspiration or to freeze him in the moment. The crowd was left in awe and disbelief that Bad Dreems could enter their lives so suddenly and then be gone just as quick, leaving their ears and bones still ringing with the music.
Sun Room
Hailing from the salty surf of California, Sun Room fit right into the lineup despite coming from half a world away. Perhaps it was the bob cuts and striped tees of these Californian lads that made me half-expect them to sound like a Ramones revival. That was until I heard the familiar sounding surfy vocal harmonies and jangly guitars on Crashed My Bike. As in surfy, indie band in the same vein as our very own Skegss, Sun Room were immediately right at home playing to the Gold Coast. So much so that their bassist quite literally tipped his Australian flag patterned bucket hat at the crowd.
The track Cadillac sticks out to me in particular. It has this 60s surf vibe about it and is a fitting ode to an iconic part of where the band come from, complete with wailing Fender riffs, and a double timed 12 bar blues harpoon. Sun Room will brighten your day, and are well worth seeing along the east coast from Coffs Harbour to Melbourne over the next two weeks.
Smith Street Band
Smithies are a bit of a divisive band within our scene but damn do they know how to draw crowd. With six albums now under their belt, they’re definitely spoilt for choice when it comes to what songs they want to play to the crowd. But whether they’re playing deep cuts or all the hits, their fans are bound to know every word.
Smithies shows are constant crowd sing along, with the fans close to drowning out frontman Wil Wagner at certain points, which is an impressive feat considering howl loudly he belts out his own songs. Wagner himself is on the top of his game tonight, full of frenetic,sweaty energy as he thrashes around on stage, barely staying in place whenever he sings into the mic.
As usual he shows his fans plenty of love as well. He loves to share bits and pieces about what his songs mean and tell us what’s been happening in his life lately. Tonight, he’s in a very triumphant mood as he tells us all that he’s recently become a dad! He mentions that his newborn has been keeping him up like most new parents, so it’s doubly impressive that he’s jumping around on stage for us with such gusto.
The set list is all killer no filler tonight with songs like Young Drunk, Passiona, I Still Dream About You and Death To The Lads driving the audience into a frenzy. Wagner is an excellent songwriter and knows how to build energy and angst in his songs until they culminate into a cathartic final chorus.
In somewhat related news, I love to send Dave Woodhead crank messages on the Triple J text line asking how long has he been singing in the Smithies when he plays them at lunchtime (Yes, I do this at least once a fortnight).
Press Club
I feel so bad that I’m about to give so much praise to Iain Macrae compared to his bandmates, but he just nailed it. His bass had absolutely clarity and cut right through the mix. The sound of it was easily the richest sound throughout the day, with a smooth melody and mesmerising clamour and fullness that was hard to beat. I’ve seen Press Club four times this year touring with DZ Deathrays on the R.I.F.F album tour with Dust.
Iain aside, the band are composed of the charismatic Greg Rietwyk on guitar, the always smiling Frank Lees on the drums, and the voice of the south in Natalie Foster. I got to have a chat with Nat prior to hitting the stage, and joke to her that she doesn’t need a mic because her voice is so damn strong. She quickly laughs, “Yeah in a good way!”. Nat tells me that they’ll play the new song No Pressure tonight and surprise the crowd by playing the guitar herself for one of the songs.
Headwreck went absolutely off as always. Another highlight for me is the intro of Suburbia with the sparse opening notes of Greg’s guitar synchronising with Nat’s intro: “Lately… I’ve been mistaken for crazy…”. I love in that song when I hear it, and I hope to see them play it live over and over.
At one point during their set, a fan took off her bracelet and clipped it on to Nat’s arm while she was leaning over the barrier. It was one of the sweetest blink and you’d miss it moments that I have seen at a show. It really demonstrates the admiration that people have for her. Of course, Nat delivered when it came time for her to play guitar. She can do it all with ease! Although, it was unusual seeing her two feet fixed to the floor momentarily considering she usually spends half the songs absolutely flying.
Dune Rats
Dunies have the ability to send a crowd from well-mannered sophisticates to raging ferals in one track. Is it the giant beach ball, inflatable Dunies lager can, or more? Brett spent more time walking around the Marketta on the day than the backstage so I should have asked! He was talking to everyone.
The crowd were hungry for Dune Rats after a long day. As we waited, I saw grown men standing on each other’s shoulders in a Christ pose, and people throwing beer cans at each other. Opening their set with the Scott Green, the Dune Rats got the crowd smoking both literally and figuratively. The party favourites kept rolling with 6 Pack, Dalai Lama Big Banana Marijuana and What a Memorable Night and my personal favourites Up and Too Tough Terry. The crowd had its fair share of shirtless, cooked participants, dripping with sweat and missing their shoes as they fell out of the mosh.
At one point, Danny shares moment with us and describes how at school his teachers looked down on him and had the idea that wouldn’t succeed in life. A couple of ARIA Award nominations, two ARIA number one albums, and a global fanbase of fun-loving fans shows otherwise.
Dunies show us where their hearts are at by giving up and comers CHEAP-SKATE a leg up by letting them join in their cover of the The Angels’ Am I Ever Going to See Your Face Again?. Doc Neeson was smiling down on the Miami Marketta that night and blessing this surf rock rendition of an Australian classic that has a special place in the hearts of this nation.
The set closes off with the rager of a track Bullshit, but the audience aren’t satisfied. They cry for an encore, but for once the Dune Rats have to disappoint. To me, Dunies are like the party bag given out at the end of a kids birthday party to the chagrin of parents. Add more hype to an already elevated, sugar-rushed bunch of delinquents, and pandemonium ensues. Fuck yes Dunies!
CHEAP-SKATE
Not many bands in 2023 can say Dune Rats opened for them, but these guys can. Playing the closing set of festival after the main act is a tough gig, especially as most of the punters raced towards the exit to beat the traffic on the M1, but they did it well! All thanks to their bucketloads of charisma, showmanship, and rip-snorting talent.
“We are CHEAP-SKATE, I know you don’t know our song lyrics yet, but we won’t disappoint, stay and rock out with us!” cries out frontman Blaike Murphy as their set begins.
I’m so glad that I did. Blaike did not stop smiling the whole set and loved every moment. Good songwriting and technical skill can easily fall flat if the band lacks stage presence, but not CHEAP-SKATE though. Blaike was like a life-sized can of Pasito, shaken up in the 30-degree Queensland summer heat, and ready to absolutely explode out onto stage.
CHEAP-SKATE start out their set with two absolutely ripper songs, Demons and Lost N Broke, which are filled with lots of Dune Rats inspired surfy vocal harmonies. I suggest instantly adding these to your liked songs list. The way they drew on from the rapidly exiting audience, stopping them dead in their tracks with their Vann’s still moist from their Dune Rats show shoeys, and inviting them to jump into yet another circle pit was amazing. Blaike was worthy of an invisible stock whip the way he rounded them up.
As the last note of the festival rang out across the Marketta, one of the many punters that didn’t want the night to end asked “Do you know Covered in Chrome?” to which Blaike replied “I do but I don’t think the band does!”. There was this distinct look of hunger in his eyes as he glanced at his guitar, the audience, and then back at his guitar with the biggest smile. He reluctantly placed it down as the band walked off stage, but you could tell that they would have played an encore if they had one up their sleeve. Maybe next time!
Conclusion
Best Night Ever 2023 more than lived up to its name. I’d like to give a massive shout out to all the staff that made the festival possible. They definitely run a tight ship, both at the festival and at the Marketta more generally. Water, drinks and food were never hard to get. You never had to wait too long for the bathroom and the smokers was right where it should be.
The security wasn’t too heavy handed either. How they spaced out the sets was great as well, you don’t often get a festival with no clashes! I will say that the semi-enclosed nature of the venue can make the sound a bit muddled at times but it’s nothing that the sound guys couldn’t work around. Big love to the staff, the bands, and punters for making Best Night Ever 2023 the best it could be. Bring on 2024!
A massive thanks to Brad from East West Presents for letting us in to cover the festival. Make sure to check out the amazing photography of Will Johnstone and Luke Henery as well.
P.S. I’m the nerd at a gig you might see with a note pad and pen jotting notes in unreadable hieroglyphics and taking photos of my friend Quintin as he surfs the crowd. Say hi to us, and give us your perspective to include in future articles. See you at everything in 2024.