Hotter Than Hell @ Coopers Alehouse, Gepps Cross SA 27/10/2024
As the crowds start to descend on the car park-turned-festival venue at the Coopers Alehouse, it’s great to see the Hotter than Hell festival back on the touring circuit in 2024, and after a few years off, who better to get the party started than The Bennies. Ripping into Detroit Rock Ciggies the band are here to hype up the early audience with singer Anty pogoing and fly-kicking his way across the stage as the band showcase their unique blend of ska-pop-punk. Unapologetically quirky, The Bennies mix the heavy with the happy, horns with hip-hop, samples with synths, and serve it all up on a punk rock canvas accompanied with plenty of cheek and brazenness. Familiar jams like Knights Forever and Party Machine get fists pumping, and new song Hounds gives the audience a taste of some new music to come.
A fourteen year hiatus is a decent break from the live scene, but Little Birdy seem to have picked things right back up from where they left them. Their brand of dreamy country-tinged rock is the perfect soundtrack to a warm spring afternoon with friends, and frontwoman Katy Steele’s voice is still as powerful as ever, driving the band’s set through hits like C’mon Little Heartbreaker and Relapse. The much-loved alt-ballad Beautiful To Me receives a fitting reception, the tune having lost none of its charm since its release in the early noughties.
They may have released a new album this year (Oiks if you’re wondering) but today Jebediah are taking it all the way back to 1997 playing their debut LP Slightly Odway in full. Born of a time before smartphones, music streaming, and mp3s, Slightly Odway is an album etched in the memory of the millennial crowd, likely one of a handful of CDs that was thrashed in most people’s bedroom or car in the late 90s.
Scanning the crowd it’s unsurprising that everyone knows every word to every song, as memories of the 1998 Big Day Out come flooding back with crowd singalongs like Harpoon, Invaders, Military Strongmen and crowd favorite Teflon. It’s a set unashamedly steeped in nostalgia, so full of crowd-pleasers, you’d be forgiven for thinking the whole album was designed to be played live this way.
With the crowd settling into the evening the event has been superbly run so far, the only exception being the heavy-handed security crew who seem way too eager to be evicting patrons for engaging in a little bit of crowd surfing. A bit over the top you’d think.
Pivoting from the Big Day Out to the Warped Tour, there’s a lot of love in the house for Florida ska-punkers Less Than Jake tonight. Touring their seminal 1998 release Hello Rockview, classics like Nervous in the Alley, History of a Boring Town, and All my best friends… (that key change still hits!) crank the mosh into a frenzy as a dedicated crew of fans in the front salute the punk legends with plenty of waving arms and pointed fingers. Along with Hello Rockview there’s still plenty of room in the set for tracks like Johnny Quest.., The Science Of Selling Yourself Short and set-closer Gainesville Rock City, delivering the Hotter than Hell crowd a healthy dose of ska-punk singalongs. The audience may be twenty-six years older, but singing “this is the same old story of growing up and getting lost” still seems strangely relevant.
Less Than Jake may not know who the hell Regurgitator are, but to this crowd they need no introduction. Thrilling fans for over the last thirty years, the ‘gurge are still one of the most consistently entertaining Australian live bands, and with new keytarist/guitarist Sarah Lim in tow, the band are arguably sounding better than ever. As they open their set with three belters in a row in Kong Foo Sing, I Will Lick Your A***hole, and Track 1, the irony is not lost on the group that the crowd probably do like their old stuff better than their new stuff, but that doesn’t deter them from slotting in tunes from the new LP Invader. Tunes like Pest, This Is Not A Pop Song and Wrong People all sit comfortably in the set next to classics like Fat Cop and Blubber Boy, and Blood and Spunk.
With a backdrop of visual graphics showcasing old film-clips merged with their classic, mind-bending, often downright crazy imagery, its possible that Regurgitator have never looked better either, their striking light show, matching white uniforms and Lim’s gorgeous hot pink Ibanez guitar and Roland keytar all melding into the band’s eccentric visual aesthetic.
Rounding out their set with Black Bugs (featuring a synthed-up version of Enter Sandman) and party anthem ! (The Song Formerly Known As), Regurgitator bring the 2024 Hotter than Hell Adelaide leg to a close in what has been an epic spring day of superb live music from the past and present. The Bennies couldn’t have put it any better: don’t you wish these nights go on forever!
Live Review By Matt Eygenraam