Live Review: Camp Cope, Horror My Friend, Hyder Seek, Ben David

Following were Hyder Seek, a local act that delivered a headstrong set of gutsy, emotional testimonials that had the room at full capacity by the second track. With honest lyrics and underdressed, rattling guitars, you felt a sting like falling off your bike when you were ten and grazing your bare knees on asphalt. This familiar, suburban punk rock would be the theme for the night, a sound that excites you but also makes you a little bit sad.

No stranger to sad, post-punk songwriting and noisy live performances are Horror My Friend, who followed up with tracks from their debut album Stay In, Do Nothing (2016). Reassuring us that the following songs were indeed to make you feel sad, epic tracks like PB Remains and Same Minds were standouts of the set that showed the band shifting pace with gutsy, post-rock choruses that simply get bigger and bigger.

Upon releasing their debut self-titled LP, Camp Cope announced an album launch tour bringing the all-girl Melbourne trio to Adelaide. Unfortunately, the distinctive conversational flow of vocalist Georgia Maq was at a loss, with the group appealing to members of Hyder Seek to help out, with what the band later referred to as "camp copaoke". Despite this, the group of girls dancing, singing and sometimes forgetting lyrics together on stage was a poignant display of how much support and love this band had surrounding them.

Crowd favourites Jet Fuel Can't Melt steel Beams and Done were brutally unapologetic, and incredibly well received by the crowd. Driving bass lines in slower, brooding tracks like West Side Story showed a shift in gears, yet stuck to the feeling of stinging grazed knees, before wrapping up their set with Lost (Season One). Touching on themes of mental illness and loneliness, a balance of both emotional fragility and angst creates the modern punk sound that is Camp Cope. These girls are certainly ones to watch in the Australian indie-punk scene.