The Bennies, The Gooch Palms, Young Offenders @ Uni Bar, Adelaide 5/7/2018
Live music can be a fickle Beast, sometimes turning up to the First support can sometimes be a ghost town… but when it’s local lads Young offenders the norm is not what we get! It’s the Adelaide uni bar, it’s Thursday night and a solid crowd of punters cheer along their local favourites. The Adelaide three piece warming up the appreciative crowd with their ska, punk, Brit rock styles. The locals know how to entertain as well with hard rocking tunes like Wasting Time and some anthems that throwback to the roots of punk rock getting the punters off to a flyer.
Gooch Palms follow soon after, they’re a simple two piece set up (originally from Newcastle) that have an irresistible energy. The beaming smiles of Drummer Kat and Leroy on Guitar take us through a series of tales about everyday life and turn the seemingly mundane into a punk rock commentary of life’s challenges with a sense of humour and tongue in cheek observations. Blasting their garage punk sounds with Indy surf overtones they keep the crowd smiling as they riff through the evening with a raw and energetic set.
The Bennies, well are they ever not having a good time??
The Melbourne lads are full of energy and love a laugh, they immediately start smashing out the party tunes with What’s Your F*°¢ing Problem, Ocean, Party Machine they move back and forth between albums with a fluency that shows they own their eclectic style and have developed a unique attitude that gives them their own special place in the vast world of punk. Screaming rock, Funky ska, driving riffs all mashed together to form The Bennies own brand of good times! It can be hard to decipher so many of these bands from each other, but The Bennies seem to have carved their own niche in the scene in the 9 years they’ve been doing their thing. Showcasing their latest release Natural born Chillers, The Bennies put full force into each song as they had the crowd jumping and singing along to the undeniably fun tunes being blasted through the uni bar. It seems the title of their first album Party! Party! Party! Is a philosophy that is still running strong now four albums in. Its hard not to smile your way through a set of songs that celebrate the good life especially when the band is clearly living the dream by touring their own soundtrack to party!
Live Review by Peter Young