Live Review: DZ Deathrays, Tiger Beams

A line of eager spectators has formed outside Alhambra lounge at the scheduled opening time, a mob consisting of all (legal) ages, genders, shapes and sizes. Inside, Jessie Hawkins and Jeremy Neale – aka Tiger Beams – are greeted by an audience that's close to capacity when they hit the stage at 9.30pm, which is no surprise considering the musical connections and fanbase the pair command due to their involvement in so many Brisbane bands. Looking at these guys, it's clear we're in for a bit of fun; they're wearing matching black bomber jackets with scorpions on the back, and sunglasses that appear to have been borrowed from the wardrobe of a cheesy 1980s sci-fi flick about the future. Totally badass. Hawkins screams some unintelligible obscenities into the main microphone for a few seconds before taking his place at the drums, and the set begins. Man On Wire is the opener tonight, which gets the party started in a riotous fashion. Being that only a small number of their songs come close to the two-minute mark, Tiger Beams possess a stage presence similar to that of a tornado – they cause frenzy and chaos as they blast through tracks including Intergalactic, Bionic Beams, and Earth, leaving the audience to ponder, “What just happened?” when the set wraps up half an hour later with Beams Of Light. Great fun.

Experienced DZ Deathrays veterans eagerly anticipate the madness they know is about to ensue, while those in attendance for the first time have no doubt heard of the band's reputation. The crowd instantaneously transforms into a single unit once Simon Ridley and Shane Parsons take the stage; thrashing, screaming and stomping together to the anarchy-fuelled beats of Cops Capacity which opens the set. After performing a track from earlier in their career, The Mess Up, we're given a taste of the new material the boys have been working on; Face Crusher. The song is a success with the crowd and lives up to its title, as the mayhem in the pit amplifies. A few punters decide that now is the time to crash the stage, and some stifled attempts at crowd-surfing are made. We're then treated to a run through of tracks from their debut album Bloodstreams, starting with Gebbie Street and onto Teenage Kickstarts, Dollar Chills, and Debt Death before the night closes with their hit of 2010 Teeth.

Tonight the boys deliver a set with a great mix of old and new, and while there's not nearly enough stage-diving and crowd-surfing, it's still been another trademark night of wild, uninhibited rock'n'roll. The crowd leaves with stiff necks, sore throats and battered knees; and it's perfect. There ain't no party like a DZ party.