Live Review: The Television Addicts, Screamfeeder, 1.1.1

Entirely appropriately for Valentine’s Day there seems to be a lot of love in the room as multi-headed Ipswich ska-punk behemoth 1.1.1. power through their fun-fuelled paces, finishing an up-tempo set with a raucous rendition of A-Ha’s Take On Me to the appreciation of the burgeoning throng.

Next up are local icons Screamfeeder, and being as they are in the midst of re-issuing their entire catalogue on vinyl tonight finds them in full reminiscence mode from the get-go, the trio kicking off with old chestnut Around The Pole (from 1993’s Burn Out Your Name). Bassist Kellie Lloyd takes vocal duties for Down The Drinker, before Tim Steward takes back the reins for the nuanced change-up of Sushi Bowl, which itself gradually builds back into more typical rocky terrain.

Drummer Dean Shwereb is also in fine fettle, all three friends and bandmates seeming to be having a blast in these old school environs as they power on with Bruises and the pop-tinged And Tigers They Roam. By now the evergreen Hi Cs is nothing if not a Brisbane anthem and the room agrees. singing along with gusto, their participation followed by Lloyd and Steward virtually duetting on Ant before they move on through Bunny, Lost In The Snow and Needles. It’s so great to see this Brisbane institution in such fine form and having so much fun as they finish with the relative aggression of Car Man, the crowd bellowing their appreciation as the lights come up and the pub’s PA flickers back into operation to mark the set’s end.

Now if we thought we’d been enjoying an exercise in nostalgia with the ‘Feeder taking us through their rich back catalogue, that experience pales into temporal insignificance as the three members of The Television Addicts – Dave Faulkner (nee Flick) on guitar/vocals, James Baker on drums and Ray Ahn on bass – take up their spots and thunder into (I’m Just A) Victim, the rapid-fire song acting as something of a mission statement as it ushers in this revisiting of music from The Victims’ tenure in Perth in the late-‘70s. The fledging punk band never crossed the Nullabour in its original incarnation so tonight represents the first time that these great songs have ever been played in anger in Queensland, and the sizable (and well-weathered) crowd roars their appreciation as they smash through tracks like Out Of My Head and Horror Smash with great gusto.

All three seem to having a blast – specially Ahn who is playing the music of his heroes alongside his actual heroes and loving every second – and you can hear the seeds of the Hoodoo Gurus (which would later feature both Faulkner and Baker) in tunes like the catchy I Understand. It’s all fast and frenetic but with plenty of hooks and melody, and it’s especially cool seeing Faulkner in this small suburban setting after decades of watching him rock far bigger venues. He introduces Uranium Song with a typically self-deprecating “This one almost sounds political but it wasn’t, it was just us being fuckwits”, and they throw in a lightning rendition of The Troggs’ Love Is All Around before bashing back into the realm of originals with Open Your Eyes and I’m Looking For You. It’s a non-stop cavalcade of garage goodness, especially towards the set’s end when they unleash a stream of gold including Teenage Dreamer, TV Freak, High School Girls, I Wanna Be With You and the primal (I’m) Flipped Out Over You, the response huge when they conclude with The Victims’ staple Television Addict, the song which has morphed over the years into a veritable Oz rock classic (having been covered by everyone from You Am I to The Hellacopters).

There’s a couple more thrown in for good measure as an encore but the damage has by now been done – an awesome traipse down a memory lane which bisects the highways of Aussie rock’n’roll, featuring music which has stayed alive over the decades and which still carries considerable heft amidst the buzzsaw riffage. There are no victims here tonight, just lucky witnesses and happy survivors.