There’s nothing Dead about this Mall! I can confidently pronounce that after witnessing another sublime performance from Newcastle’s chief quintet. After a sporadic year of gigs and leaving their fans (including myself) begging for more, Dead Mall are in top gear as they enter 2025. With two new tracks Gasoline and Property Damage replenishing our eager thirsts. With rumours of an album on the way, I caught them early in the evening before they mesmerized the crowd with razor sharp riffs, dynamic drum fills, and vociferous vocals to ask them Five Quickfire Questions!
Dead Mall are:
- Adam: Bass
- Brad: Drums
- Darcy: Guitar and backing vocals (Interviewed)
- Joe: Guitar and backing vocals (Interviewed)
- Ruairi: Vocals (Interviewed)
1. You’re running low on Gasoline on the way to a show, who’s paying for it?
Ruairi: Adam.
Darcy: Yeah, Adam for sure. He’s the money guy.
Ruairi: What’s your reason?
Darcy: He’s just the most organised.
Ruairi: Yeah, he is.
Darcy: He gets all those responsibilities put on him.
(Everyone laughs)
Joe: And everyone will pay him back instantly, except for Brad. Brad will pay him back in a month.
2. The game has changed and now you have to put actual Skin in the Game. How much are you giving up?
Ruairi: Depends what part of the body it’s from. I’ve got a lot of skin- I keep trying to get it off my feet… Doesn’t come off. I reckon I’m probably an inch higher than I should be.
(Laughter ensues)
Ruairi: Most of that is skin I’m willing to lose and put in the game. So, I guess an inch of skin?
Joe: I did the thing, when I was in Greece, where you put your feet in the tank and then the fish eat all your skin off.
Ruairi: That’s why I wrote the song.
Joe: Yeah, I was writing while my feet were in the tank.
3. You’ve copped some Property Damage and Everything is Broken, a note has been left behind. Which band has done it?
Darcy: Ooh.
Ruairi: Did they steal anything? Or have they just broken things?
OB: Just broken.
Darcy: Everything is broken though.
Ruairi: Because they didn’t steal anything it’s clearly a personal attack. So…
Darcy: [Band name redacted].
(Laughing)
Ruairi: That was my first thought.
(Laughter ensues again)
4. If you had EYES on the back of your head, what is the first thing you would do with them?
Joe: Check out my ass in the mirror.
Ruairi: Nice. I guess I haven’t looked at my back in so long, I avoid looking at myself in the mirror most of the time. So, I guess I don’t know what’s going on… I don’t know if I have tattoos back there. I guess I’d check that.
(Laughing)
Darcy: I would shave my back cause it’s hard.
Ruairi: It’s hard… But your arms aren’t backwards. You’ve just got an eye there. You’ll still have the same amount of movement.
Darcy: Better vision though.
OB: This is a good point.
5. Chris Martian has landed his spaceship in Australia and is looking for a gig venue. Where should he play?
Joe: Uh, nowhere.
(Roaring laughter)
Joe: He should go back to…
OB: Planet Mars?
Joe: I’m more just alluding to the actual Chris Martin of Coldplay. He can fuck off.
Ruairi: Anyone see the new songs by the way? The new Coldplay stuff? Cause I only saw it on SNL. Awful. It was like making bad U2 worse, that’s what it sounds like.
(We’ll leave it up to our readers to decide whether it’s okay or not to like Coldplay ha-ha-ha])
Ruairi: So, guess he can go back to… where is he from?
Everyone: Mars.
(Laughter)
Ruairi: What about Bono? Irish Mars?
Darcy: Is Bono Irish?
Ruairi: I don’t know.
Darcy: Where are U2 from? England?
We leave Dead Mall here pondering the origins of international stars and their extra-terrestrial counterparts.
Dead Mall are a MUST add to any punk loving, headbanging enthusiasts Live Music Bucket List. If you see them on a bill near you, you know what to do! Drop what you’re doing, grab as many mates as you can, and enjoy the hardcore-punk fury that is DEAD MALL!
A massive thanks to Ella Grace Patterson (@sketchy.kid) for all the show photos, you can check out more of her work here!
Make sure to give Dead Mall a listen below too: