Cosmic PsychosCosmic Psychos began the night boasting their tight musical abilities and high-energy stage presence. While they’re consistently known as being a typical Australian pub-rock-slash-punk band their sound actually has far more depth than that title implies and the Psychos should most certainly be recognised for how their guitar tones and riff structure draw comparisons to Queens Of The Stone Age, Soundgarden and at a stretch even Primus.
While this notion is not only obvious but common knowledge to long-standing fans of the long-surviving band, it’s important to make note of this for the generation of new fans that will surely have cottoned on to their greatness. This generational gap seems to be a running theme of the tour, with the majority of the audience being in the 18–24 sector, and the Psychos referring to Dune Rats as their bastard sons. The fidelity of their musicianship made Cosmic Psychos’ set entertaining from beginning to end.
Adelaide was (questionably) lucky to witness Dune Rats in what was probably their most catastrophically loose condition of the whole tour. While their blend of stoner pop, punk and garage sees them create some songs that are too formulaic, there are a slew of songs in their repertoire that reverberate deeply with the listener and touch on the darker undertones of a destructive lifestyle, making for an alarmingly accurate deconstruction of human nature. Dune Rats hit the stage and by the time they ripped into Superman, stage invaders were flying into the crowd to the irritation of the security. While not the most talented musicians by any means, the Rats’ ability to play amidst the chaos was admirable. Gems such as Colour Television, Fuck It and Pogo made up the middle of their set list. Soon Dune Rats opted to skull their beers out of some crowd member’s shoes. Both Danny and BC projectile vomited all over themselves and a (not so) unsuspecting Brett, who managed to dive under the stream of regurgitation. Ross Knight of Cosmic Psychos emerged with another six pack of beer to revive the humour just as it began to get a little pathetic. By the time Dunnies were back in business with Red Light, Green Light and WOOO! there were kids jumping on stage and emptying entire bags of grass on the stage for their idols. Gnarly!
