Live Review: Shihad, Grenadiers

Main act, Shihad peel open with Home Again before frontman Jon Toogood explains it's been over 20 years since their first record and celebrates by strutting out La La Land. Showmanship like that of Shihad is few and far between these days — their performance tonight is a breath of pure, unfettered rockery! Before belting out Interconnector off their Blue Light Disco EP, Toogood explains his band stole the producer from Brisbane's Regurgitator (Lachlan Goold) for that project, then follows up with Wait And See. 

The General Electric track My Mind's Sedate amps everyone up before the band arch back for the classic Pacifier, bellowing out their most beloved hook to date, (so popular that they briefly changed their name to this title to appease a fucking ignorant US market). Toogood notes that while writing FVEY (2014), Tony Abbott was fucking up our way of life, which segues into them riding out on the latest album's The Living Dead, letting one of the angriest riffs bleed out tonight, and then closing out on Cheap As.

Before fooling no one into a final hurrah, Shihad return for their encore with You Again off 1995's Killjoy. Fucking faultless, all said and done!