Live Review: Tumbleweed, Bruce!, Los Tones

Tumbleweed

In case anyone's curious: yes, Tumbleweed have still fucking got it.

Scuzzy Sydney retro rockers Los Tones brought a decent set to kick things off, and despite outfits so incredibly hipster it bordered on parody, they still clung to legitimacy through a rigorous (albeit fairly rote) selection of rockabilly/surf/garage-rock hybrids. Their arrangements were tight and economical, generating some buzz but never more than enough to push things along.

Next up were Wollongong heavy-hitters Bruce! One doesn't get an accurate impression of the grungy power of their material through their meagre online presence (or through shitty laptop speakers), and so their set was both a great surprise and a thorough education in expectations and how easy it is to destroy them with just the volume knob on a Marshall stack. It was a big set, full of angry men yelling grand rhetoric behind walls of sludgy power chords. They've only been around since last year, but they sound like they're from 1994, minus the teen angst. Zero pretence and old fashioned cheek made it easier to like them.

Most bands don't get another go-around once they've dried up, particularly cult bands or better yet cult Australian bands. Tumbleweed in particular seemed an especially unlikely candidate for revival, given their spotty history with personnel changes and label difficulties. They're back for real, and it seems fitting to see them being hosted by the Annandale, the venue that refuses to die.

The line-up roster at the moment is the same as 1995's Galataphonic recording (a criminally underrated gem), and it's great to see them so full of piss and vinegar again on the back of a quality new release, Sounds From the Other Side.

Richie Lewis still snarls sardonically through familiar songs (Mushroom Cloud opened the set), and Lenny Curley and Paul Hausmeister's guitars chugged away like rusty pistons around him. Their new material is pretty much more of the same, but 'Weed fans weren't asking for enhanced sophistication or personal growth to mark the band's return – they were just happy they're recording again.

The band seemed to feel the same way, and was cheerful and snappy (although Lewis never twerked like he promised). The set was generous and ladled on the gravy, and the very specific space-rock guitar fuzz they monopolised in this country was in abundance.

Tumbleweed's victory lap of the country continues.