A sweltering Fitzroy evening sees several hundred rapt punters pack out one of Johnston Street's finest establishments; the floor so thickly sticky it's physically hard to leave. Gold Tango drags us willingly to 1981 with a bristling take on post-punk. The band's controlled fury is channeled into bursts of atmospheric organ-driven rock and it's exciting stuff, demanding a bigger audience and less heat-stricken crowd.
Hunting Pictures, boasting members of Scul Hazzards and Deaf Wish, are a blast of furious guitar-driven, occasionally melodic, noise rock, and impress greatly. The audience response generates a pall of sweat that hangs over the crowd and suddenly 1994 at the Punters Club seems viscerally real. It's not that dissimilar to the incendiary ruckus pushed by the ensuing White Walls. Thrashing at minor chords with far more success than the blades of the ineffectual ceiling fans above, the trio's lingering, melodic vocals and manic drums add up to an eminently mosh-able whole.
A 'full house' sign goes up just before Degreaser begin, while security manages a steadily growing crowd on the street. With singer/guitarist Tim Evans based in Brooklyn, the band can claim a '(US)' suffix, but only their sound is American. Degreaser are an exercise in dark, scuzzy valve-driven blues riffing, with piercing guttural vocals, and huge basslines that often drown out Evans' frantic guitar grabbing. Songs blend together, united by stomping rhythms of varying speed, and as powerful as it sounds, it seems a hollow, empty clamour. Still, drinks flow, the crowd crowds and the punters love it.
