Live Review: Violent Soho, DZ Deathrays, Dune Rats, The Gooch Palms

The Gooch Palms get the earlybirds, flocks of teens standing up against the barrier, staking out space for the main event: the final Violent Soho set of their Waco tour. Kat Friend stands at an upright drum kit - actually just a tom and a snare, front of stage, brimming with energy as she dances. Leroy Macqueen has his guitar and signature mullet about a metre away, snarling into the mic, dancing over to Friend, introducing his own guitar solo. Fuck they're a fun band. They make easy garage, charging three-minute angst snapshots, slower songs adding a sense of dynamism, guitar and drums ably filling the space thanks to their charisma and comfort with each other. It's hard not to love a band in matching jackets, and we're on side with anyone admonishing Mike Baird (Hunter Street Mall). They close with We Get By, before Macqueen hurls himself into the crowd.

Dune Rats sound like Wavves without Nathan Williams. They didn't learn all the words to Blister In The Sun — there's not that many words! — but the huge crowd they pulled didn't mind a pinch, and fuck it, it's fun to sing "Dalai Lama, Big Banana, marijuana!" out loud, even as the police bring a sniffer dog into the venue. We've got our first man on shoulders, shoes are thrown, beers spill into the air (one man skols one on stage), and vocalist Danny Beusa (or Jason Mewes in disguise? Questions!) sounds almost droll against a slightly deeper bottom end, while Brett Jansch jumps and plays bass at the same time like a goddamn pro. Crowdsurfing from hereon in becomes part and parcel of each of the sets, and we are #blessed with our first dancing girl on stage, who gives it her all, even if she thinks the song ends before it actually does.

And here come the pros. Facebook tells me that some upstarts allegedly jumped six metres from the mezzanine onto the dancefloor just so they could get into the pit for DZ Deathrays and Violent Soho. That's commitment. Bravo gentlemen. And fair enough — because it's a set that's so tight that ~insert crude joke here~. Blue lighting illuminates the duo, plus touring member Lachlan Ewbank as they begin tearing through their setlist, an early highlight being No Sleep. Shane Parsons and Simon Ridley just have so much fury and cutthroat energy, it's impossible to look away or stand still; the sound from the simple guitar-bass-drum set-up doesn't feel hollow at all, but filled out and strong, relying not on a persona but on the strength of their hard rock musicianship. Of course they won two fucking ARIAs — they burst with pent-up power and aggression channeled into bangers like Dollar Chills, a cover of Blur's Song 2 and closer Gina Works At Hearts. The crowd are wild for it.

Setup for Violent Soho is hidden by a white curtain, which has their logo in red projected onto it as the opening notes of How To Taste ring out across the Enmore. The band are revealed for Luke Boerdam's first howl: "She said..." And then it's mayhem, the mosh kicked into a frenzy, Boerdam powering through despite obvious vocal issues: "I'm losing my voice, so you're going to help me out," he says by the end, the crowd happily taking his place on vocals. James Tidswell leads the crowd interaction, while Luke Henery and him share the award for best headbang, long hair catching air. It's majestic, mesmerising. The band kick into Evergreen before Neighbour Neighbour, In The Aisle, So Sentimental, Slow Wave and Blanket and then the crowd get to prove they know all the words to Viceroy, Saramona Said and Fur Eyes. Violent Soho unleash on Ok Cathedral, giving it an extended breakdown that's worth ticket price alone, as shirts rise and fall in the air. The mosh stretches back halfway into the theatre - maybe even further - for standout Dope Calypso. Violent Soho are also not showy - they know their music holds up to scrutiny, capturing a nuanced kind of fierce aggression, skittering between the quiet melodies and angsty outbursts, best shown in another highlight, Like Soda, which follows Eat Your Parents. For the finale, Covered In Chrome, Boerdam's voice barely carrying anymore, Dune Rats, DZ Deathrays, The Gooch Palms and surprise! Owen Penglis of Straight Arrows, emerge on stage to TP both the band and the audience. The energy is manic, crowd members scramble on stage for their share of the fun, even as Violent Soho's tourmates launch themselves off the stage. A huge ending to a huge tour - next stop, arenas, but gosh, wouldn't losing this intimacy be a shame?