Live Review: Yours & Owls Farewell Party

With opening band Break A Leg (and headliners Castlecomer) cancelled, hard rockers D'Luna kicked off the farewell party for Wollongong's beloved Yours And Owls – a night of violent moshing in small spaces.

The party stretched across two stages, one at Owls and the other across the road at the Wollongong Town Hall emceed by local comedian Sunga Attack with some live street art going on in between.

Rock'n'roll/soul outfit Rocking Horse & The Baby Dolls opened the Town Hall stage with pizzazz, their matching costumes and choreographed dance moves setting off some brilliant vocal performances. After them came the extremely experimental jazz trio 3 Of Millions, whose improvised distortion ambiance was hypnotic.

By 8.30pm, when Mere Women were on, there was a line outside the tiny Yours And Owls venue but as people switched between stages, it moved quickly and the rock trio (who actually include one man in their line-up) played a great set but with The Walking Who on the Town Hall stage, it was back there for a show-down of local indie rock and some dancing stage-crashers. It was the third anniversary of the three-piece-cum-six-piece instrumentalists, making them the same age as Owls.

Bec Sandridge was ethereal, tumbling around the stage with her small guitar but the definite highlight of the night were the local favourites, metal quintet Totally Unicorn, who packed out the Owls venue with a terrifying performance of near-nudity, stage/stair/mezzanine-diving and people-crushing. They demolished a plant and a drum kit while the crowd carried lead singer Drew around the venue. After their set, they urged everyone to run over and see Tumbleweed, who finished off the night with some rock expertise.

A fitting send-off for a trio of rapscallions, the Yours And Owls farewell was an unforgettable night where Wollongong felt like a family, saw a little too much Unicorn and showed off some of its best bits.