Regurgitator, Glitoris, The Stress Of Leisure @ The Gov, Adelaide 17/8/2018
On the back of the release of their ninth full length studio album, HEADROXX, Brisbane’s Regurgitator graced Adelaide with its presence on Friday night as part of their album launch tour.
With Brisbane’s The Stress of Leisure warming up the crowd and Canberra’s Glitoris subsequently revving them up to the point of bursting, Regurgitator took to The Gov’s stage incognito wearing day-glow masks. To a backing track of Headroxx Quan Yeomans, Ben Ely and Peter Kostic channelled their inner Fred Astaire and performed a little dance for the sold out crowd before running off stage leaving the punters salivating for more.
To rapturous applause Regurgitator, sans day-glow masks, bounded back onto the stage and launched into new track Roxx for Brains. This was followed by I Wanna Be A Nudist from their triple platinum album of the same name which saw the crowd erupt into song and emerge as the unexpected backing choir for the night.
The massive nineteen song main set was a suitable combination of new songs including I Get the Internet, Not Alone and Light me on Fire mixed with classics from a variety of past albums. There was no doubting the crowd’s appreciation of the new tracks with everyone breaking out into simultaneous hand claps and ‘woos’ during the Prince sounding Party Looks and whooping in appreciation of the others, but it was the oldies the crowd were there to hear, and The Gurge delivered. Songs such as Everyday Formula, Blubber Boy, My Friend Robot, Blood and Spunk, Fat Cop, I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff, Polyester Girl and the band’s homage to Yeoman’s Asian heritage, as he described it much to Ely’s amusement, Kong Foo Sing, saw the entire room mosh in uniform perfection symbolic of our unified support of an Australian national treasure.
The look of sheer delight on Yeomans’ face when the whole crowd broke into song to I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am and every other classic pretty much summed up Regurgitator’s appreciation of the crowd and their fans in general. Ely’s comments on how awesome we were only half way through the set served to reiterate this and to whip us up into a bigger frenzy. By the time the encore rolled around everyone, the band and crowd, were completely amped up and the best was yet to come.
Kostic brought the night back to its original intent, to promote HEADROXX, which he did in true Regurgitator style with his rendition of Weird Kind of Hard which rivalled Scatman “I’m a Scatman” John’s scatting. This set the scene to end the night with an explosion of mutual respect and appreciation via Black Bugs and ! (The Song Former Known As). If it wasn’t for The Gov’s noise regulation requirements there is no doubt Regurgitator would have played for another hour. And we would have gladly let them.
After twenty-five years of making music together Regurgitator have only gotten better with age. The simplicity of their show, from the plain black t-shirts they wore to the minimalistic set and lighting they used, is a testament to their professionalism and love for the art they’ve mastered. They are just as good now as what they were in their heyday, if not better. They definitely got it right with their new album…Regurgitator Roxx.
Live Review by Anita Kertes