Live Review: Bad//Dreems, Bearhug

Bad//Dreems have been on the road for about a month with their current My Only Friend tour, with sell-outs in Melbz and Radz prompting a couple of extra dates, the wind-up show being a late addition all-ages spot at Jive.

Sydney’s Bearhug warmed up a quickly growing crowd. Despite being a member down, their boppy American-esque grunge got the early minglers swaying. Some nice moments of elated lead guitar and stooping, understated vocals were well received.

The same venue had seen a full house the night before, so the Sunday crowd was the next size down, but what they lacked in numbers (and over-age wrist-bands) they made up for in enthusiasm. A fit of overly boisterous crowd participation was well handled by the main act.

Perhaps looking a little weary at the outset, Bad//Dreems stepped on the Jive carpet dripping in zero-fucks-given bogan-chic, with checked shirts, rugby tops, shorts and boots combinations all getting a repping. It was a visual prelude for the music to come: unpretentious, comfortable, rowdy and pleasantly familiar.

The Adelaide four-piece soon displayed their mastery of their increasingly characteristic sound. The broad but distinctive combination of rolling, punky, convulsing tracks like Dumb Ideas and Home Life, the pensive up-beat Hoping For and the bawdy but macabre singalongs of Caroline and My Only Friend ensured that Bad//Dreems did their part to appropriate Oz rock for a new generation. There was certainly a common musical thread running through the whole set but the variations in pace and power kept everyone in attendance focused on the critical task at hand: rocking out.

Between the energetic bass and jangling lead guitar was a chorus of stories about the semi-post-industrial outer-suburban Australian condition. Riffing on themes of loneliness, despondence, love and rebellion, Bad//Dreems present a thoughtful meditation on a modern life of fragmented connectedness. They also make some pretty catchy indie music, so, there’s that too.

The crowd throbbed to crescendo with a crashing closing rendition of Tomorrow Mountain before Bad//Dreems took a well-earned bow and shut the gate on a solid show and tour. There’s no rest for the Dreemers though. They’re en route Stateside to play some CMJ showcase gigs in New York City and the Culture Collide Festival in Los Angeles (in an impressively large font size on the poster). If all goes to plan there we’ll likely be hearing a whole bunch more from this particular set of Adelaide dudes.