Live Review: Regurgitator, Glitoris, The Stress Of Leisure

Whenever Regurgitator tour the country, you can be sure of an interesting selection of support acts. The Stress Of Leisure, all sporting red shirts declaring "100% Fruit", were a suitable choice for the evening. Hailing from Brisbane, the four-piece brought the retro B-52s vibes to Metro Theatre. There was not a lot of action going on up on stage, but their songs, like Aim High/Get High, Pulled Pork — "Everybody in Queensland loves pulled pork" — and I Want The Internet were highlights. Fun and quirky synth-pop from up north.

"You've gotta be confident," declared Glitoris. The four-piece punk group from Canberra pulled a huge crowd compared to the earlier act, all keen to check out the buzz that has been building around them. Going by Keven 007, Tony, Malcolm and Andrew, their music is raw, punchy and political. Their stage show is always damn fun. Guitarist "Andrew" absolutely shreds. Her solos stood out on tracks like feminist anthem, Disgrace, dedicated to gender imbalance, and new track, Spit Hood, shining a light on how First Nations people are treated like "second-rate citizens" in this country.

No one in the audience could tear themselves away from the show. Exciting, energetic and entertaining, the group are brimful of musicianship, savage wit, charisma and yes, confidence. Glitoris are going shake shit up when their album drops in a couple of months.

Regurgitator, not a band to take the traditional route, created Headroxx to go along with the tour in just a few weeks and it's one of the best they've released in their epic 24-year career.

They arrived on stage sporting massive false heads inspired by the "grotesque" album cover and performed a choreographed dance. New track Roxx For Brains fits nicely into the Regurgitator canon. It's upbeat, a little bit quirky and kicked off the show well. The crowd didn't have to wait long for the old stuff though. I Wanna Be A Nudist, I Sucked a Lot of Cock To Get Where I Am, and Bong In My Eye gave the nostalgia a twinge and the crowd was starting to get rowdy.

The way the three members of the band interact on stage is so endearing. Constantly grinning, Ben Ely and Quan Yeomans cut classic rock poses with each other while Pete Kostic on drums somehow keeps it all together, his drumming metronomically perfect. They brought order to the chaos of their music in their live show and while there were mistakes, most notably a complete second take on Track 1, it's not a Regurgitator gig without some sort of fuck up.

This was a setlist for the history books. Twenty-five tracks traversing their nine albums. Old mixed in with new seamlessly; Unit classics sat alongside Party Looks, where the crowd didn't know whether to mosh or dance. Yeomans and Ely swapped instruments and vocals throughout the set, a back and forth that, after many years, still works.

After a brief break, we got a treat — Peter Kostic grabbed the mic and took us through his vocal debut, Weird Kind Of Hard. Seeing Yeomans and Ely on backing vocal and Kostic taking the spotlight for once was a joy, and so was Kostic's scat solo. If it's the first time you've seen Regurgitator or the 20th, it's always a joy — something that even after 24 years is not about to dissipate. Long live the Gurge!