Live Review: AM Reruns

It has been a million years since March, getting down in the 'Sup a week before things went spectacularly south. Ordering a beer at a live show - at the actual bar - all these lifetimes later feels like bagging groceries in Shawshank Redemption. It's a humdrum shock, one of many lately. Seeing AM Reruns setting up the first impression is ‘Well shit, they’re really holding instruments in public.’ The second is ‘How good is that?’

It’s still not a standard gig - for one thing people remain responsibly seated throughout, though rhythm-driven movers like Vicious don’t make it easy. Even so, the general vibe is understated good cheer. It might be some time before we see an indifferent punter, and not just because the city is starved for music. Capacity limits are hell on an industry that survives on bums in seats - and bods in pits - but a side effect of every gig running by 'you snooze you lose' rules is that there’s only space for the genuinely keen.

Small Time isn’t your standard venue either. You can’t dance right now but you can get pizza by the slice. There’s no stage, and the band are separated from the crowd by a wall of plexiglass, playing in a studio space that’s part KEPX, part lounge-room with the furniture removed, like a house gig exhibit at Melbourne Museum. The whole thing’s soundproofed and bands are pumped into the main room via speakers, as well as live-streamed out for anyone who can’t make it in person. It’s as purpose-built a performance space as you could ask for in the midst of a global pandemic, despite being set up in 2019.

Inside ‘The Fishbowl’, the trio open with Bring That Boy Back, a slower track from last year’s self-titled debut and the only misstep tonight. It’s their first show back, as well as with this line-up - Andy Hazel (Damien Cowell's Disco Machine) joining on bass and Bianca ‘Billy’ Raffin on drums - and the moment could use a splash more piss and vinegar.

Follow-up Vicious does the job, the track’s assured mod-rock strut giving everyone on both sides of the glass a chance to lock in. Vocalist/guitarist Andy Campbell’s not shy about his love of Johnny Marr and it shines through in his riffs; sharp, bright and stylish. AM Reruns aren't limited in their influences though and here he’s reached a little further back to when rock’n’roll was just freshly mutating into punk, adding a nice layer a fuzz to his usually polished steez.

They could have played AM Reruns start to finish and wrapped the night up neatly - the album and set both sit at a tight 30-minute mark. The band have cooked up some more material in lockdown however and it's a welcome addition, if there's more of this to come then things are looking good for 2021. Power pop loves a bit of drama and the new songs aren’t lacking. Desperate has a euphoric ache, Campbell possessed with the "ghost on the corner". Another, as-yet-unnamed track is introduced as a tribute to Slade, but Raffin opens it with thumping drums that nod more to Suzie Quatro’s Devil Gate Drive, or maybe Rock And Roll Part II, and the vocal is Campbell at his most Morrissey.

New track or old, this is a band that knows how to set a hook. They write the kind of songs that stick to your brain without you knowing. You'll just be quietly minding your own business when someone tells you if you hum Looking For A Victim one more time they'll back the car over you.

The set closes with a Bad Time Child jam and Campbell leaves the mic to play to the partition. It's a small touch but a nice one, which seems to address the weirdness of the situation. All of us out here cautiously re-entering society together, all the barriers we're still navigating. We're getting there though. Tonight, the new normal was checking in with a QR code to see a gig under glass, and we'd do it again in a heartbeat.