Live Review: Good Riddance, New Trends, Beerwolf

Sydney punks Beerwolf always put on a fun show and tonight was no different. Ripping through a set of supercharged Good Riddance-styled (funny that) tunes culled mainly from their Post Youth Crisis opus, the boys once again delivered the goods.

Bondi's New Trends have a ragged and loose sound that belies a tight melodicism (think The Saints meets 7 Seconds and Agent Orange) and driving power. Their Gimme Everything album may be a few years old now, but the songs have staying power and this was a set that flew by in a heartbeat and blur of hypnotic two-minute anthems.

It's been said plenty of times before, but it deserves to be said again. Good Riddance are the most under-appreciated band of the entire So-Cal punk movement. Catchy riffs, intelligent lyrics, tight musicianship and album after album of absolute quality - these guys should have achieved Offspring-like success. Live, they are flawless - from Russ Rankin's passionate vocals right through to Sean Sellers' powerhouse display behind the balloon adorned kit (Happy B'day Sean). Set-wise the boys chose to spread the love over there entire discography - and while you were never going to get all your favourites, no-one could really complain. The early years were represented by the likes of Mother Superior, Weight Of The World and A Credit To His Gender, the brilliant comeback album by Grace And Virtue and everything in between by the intense Fertile Fields, Pisces/Almost Home, Heresy, Hypocrisy And Revenge and the absolutely brilliant Libertine. Add to this the stand-up comedy/shit-talk genius of bass player Chuck Platt and you have a quality evening of punk rock mayhem.