Regurgitator, DZ Deathrays, Custard, Butterfingers, Glitoris @ Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide 27/5/2023
Celebrations don’t get any grander than this! The ’25 Years Of Unit In One Electric Stream Of Sound And Colour’ tour descended on the iconic Thebarton Theatre for a massive night of quintessential Australian rock music with Regurgitator sharing the stage with DZ Deathrays, Custard, Butterfingers and Glitoris. The beauty with this format was no clashes! Yes! Every band had their own moment to shine, which was definitely a good thing.
Glitoris were up first at the super early time slot of 4.30pm who looked right at home on the big stage. They have plenty of killer tunes in their kit bag and there are some really big themes that run rampant in their songs that make you stand up and take notice. There’s plenty to like with the way they play with intensity and much gusto. The Glitoris highlights reel includes current single Lickety Split and Slut Power.
It has been far to long since I’ve seen Butterfingers and they definitely brought their A-game. It was a really energetic and lively set which included Get Up Outta the Dirt, I Love Work, Figjam and Everytime. Custard were fantastic and right the get go front man Dave McCormack said that they were ‘on time and under budget’ wasting no time at all making the most s they wasted no time at ploughing through their set. It was a bit unusual not hearing all the Custard-isms and the world according to Dave McCormack. It was all about the music, old and newish, including the likes of Hit Song, Anatomically Correct, Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us), Music Is Crap and Apartment. McCormack spoke of looking at their stats on Spotify to see what was popular in the last seven days and reversing it to look at what to play on their set list questioning how The Buggles tune Video Killed The Radio Star made the list. Cracking cover which done a treat.
DZ Deathrays flexed plenty of muscle which has been bolstered even further with bass player Luke Henery (ex-Violent Soho) joining the fold. It was loud and it was raucous. Just the tonic to rattle the ear drums just before Regurgitator. They played at a frenetic pace and didn’t take the foot off the pedal in their set. Right from opening tracks IN-TO-IT and Meltdown they were on. Set stand outs for me include Gina Works at Hearts, Paranoid and Shred for Summer.
Regurgitator kicked things up a notch with big sound and production opening with set staple I Sucked a Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am followed by Blood and Spunk and Bong in My Eye. The Cypress Hill infused G7 Dick Electro Boogie was killer. The projections running in the background were really well done and Quan, Ben and Peter looked like they were having the time of their life up there. Sporting the traditional yellow tracksuits with the black stripe the first set definitely seemed as if they were playing their own personal favs which included Fat Cop, Blubber Boy, Bongzilla and Track 1.
As the band disappeared back stage for an outfit change attention turned to the big screen to watch a drum solo by Terry Bozzio (Missing Persons and Frank Zappa). Returning in silver jump suits to play Unit in its entirety from start to end. The usual suspects were great such as I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff, Everyday Formula, Black Bugs, Polyester Girl and ! (The Song Formerly Known As) but it was the lesser lights from that album that shone. I Piss Alone, Unit, 1234, Mr T. and set closer Just Another Beautiful Story were great to hear live and who knows if we’ll ever hear these ones live again. Returning for an encore of I Wanna Be a Nudist and Kung Foo Sing wrapped up a solid night of music and we look forward to the next chapter for Regurgitator.
Live Review By Rob Lyon