Live Review: The Adolescents, Toe To Toe, Batfoot!, The Fuck Outs - Hermanns Bar

Punk rock shows need a bit of chaos and the charmingly monikered The Fuck Outs brought it in spades with their brand of breakneck noise. Hey – what else would you expect from an outfit called The Fuck Outs?

Batfoot! only know a couple of chords but like The Ramones they know how to employ them to maximum effect. The Sydney locals put on a high-powered master class in melodic punk rock. Offering up well written blasts of snotty attitude played with precision and power – Batfoot! once again proved themselves to be one of the most exciting outfits of the local scene.

One always knows what's in store at a Toe To Toe gig, but with material this good the lack of surprises doesn't matter at all. In a rapidfire set the Toeys offered up everything from Hope And Sorrow from last year's 7” back to early cuts like Judas. Throw in live favourites Falling Short, Survival and For Life and you had a pretty content crowd.

The Adolescents could have been a disaster. Old guys, with only one truly classic LP to their names (recorded in 1981 for that matter), these days playing on a part-time basis – it didn't really add up. Thing is – they tore the place apart like they were all 20 years old again. Boasting a tight twin axe attack and impressive vocal harmonies that made it easy to see why Bad Religion cite them as a major influence the So-Cal veterans ripped through a set heavily weighted to their debut album. Song after song of old school melodic punk rock (No Way, Creatures, Lockdown America and Kids Of The K-Hole were particularly satisfying) caused mayhem in a small but energetic pit. Who would have thought that all these years later The Adolescents would be able to hold their own against bands literally generations younger? A special performance from a surprisingly special group of guys.