Live Review: The Bennies, Axe Girl, Alex The Kid, Hope Street

The anticipation and excitement was high for the sold-out Rosemount crowd eagerly awaiting The Bennies this Friday night here for their final leg of their Australian tour. Punters were ready to party! Hope Street and Alex The Kid set the mood for what was to be a night of high energy and smashing stage moves.

Local punk rock act Axe Girl, fired up the room so much so you could’ve left happy with frontwoman Addison Axe hitting every note and owning the stage with the confidence and professionalism Hey Monday’s Cassadee Pope would be proud of. Axe lead the trio with tracks Is This Love and Give Me Your T-shirt getting the room on their feet and enjoying every second of their no-shits given attitude, sure to have seen themselves win a bunch of new fans.

If Axe Girl’s set wasn’t already enough to get the room buzzing, out came The Bennies frontman Anty Horgan to the tune of DJ Otzi’s Hey! Baby stating, “We’re The Bennies and we’ve come here to party!”. Promoting their recently released third studio album Wisdom Machine, The Bennies opened the first show of their biggest ever national tour with Heavy Reggae before belting out Party Smashers with synths that could fill an arena packaged with vocals as catchy as their popular single Detroit Rock Ciggies which chorus sent The Rosemount into a frenzy.

It was no surprise to see so many Violent Soho and Smith Street Band shirts floating around at a Bennies gig, but there’s no doubting the bands on stage energy and ability to get the crowd involved set them apart from other acts. From getting a fan celebrating their 21st birthday up on stage to skull a can of Emu Export to pleading the crowd to provide the band a hairdresser who do rock some pretty wild hairstyles and general fun banter among themselves and the crowd all night. As well as inviting members of Alex The Kid and Addison Axe back on stage to share in the fun, there was never a dull moment throughout The Bennies set.

As well as their ability to entertain on stage, is The Bennies ability to produce such a diverse range of music. No two songs were ever the same. Maybe it was a coincidence with how their set planned out, but from the anthem worthy Anywhere You Wanna Go to the enjoyable slow beats of hold on, it seemed appropriate to finish the night with their new song O Brother, Where Art Thou which perfectly captured the band’s ability to produce music that includes so many genres in the one package (backing up their self-promoted genre Psychedelic Reggae Ska Doom Metal Punk Rock from Hell!) If you weren’t at The Rosemount Friday night you missed out! Missed out on a band having a whole lot of fun and creating some killer music in process, it’s exciting to see where The Bennies will take their music in the coming years.