Stone Cold, Attachment Theory, Late Late Shift @ Woodshed, Royal Park SA 27/9/2025
I know people who complain about the music scene in Adelaide, but when you suggest they come along to see an evening of local bands they say, “Oh I don’t know them. They can’t be any good”. How wrong are these people, as the Saturday evening show at the Woodshed demonstrated. Stone Cold have a new album release in Evil Robot Clones and they wanted to share it live, with their fans. They bought local bands, Attachment Theory and Late Late Shift along for the ride.
Late Late Shift were up first with the task of warming up the crowd, no mean feat in the “Heavy Metal” environment around them. However, they soon had the audience on their side with their quirky, but catchy, punkish interpretation of 1980’s hits. I Ran (Flock of Seagulls), Who Can It Be Now (Men at Work) and Good Thing (Fine Young Cannibals) soon had a few up dancing near the stage, while the rest of us awaited the next tune to see how long it would take us to guess the song. It was infectious and fun and when Scott was hauled up from the crowd to sing Dead Kennedy’s Police Truck, the music rose to a new level. Heads up also for the version of Far Side of Crazy (Wall of Voodoo). An arousing start to the evening.
What is it with three-piece bands, that they can sound like double the number of musicians is playing? Think Muse, Cream and many others. Attachment Theory fall under that umbrella. With a guitar onslaught from Stuart Krill to kick things off, Drummer Lovell and bass player Larry kicked in for the opening number Rinse Box. It was fast and furious. Feedback ended the song and continued till the second song; Visplane Overflow emerged from the noise. Feedback was to feature throughout the set. The band played their singles, Full Send, Nothing’s Wrong and Alone in the Dark through their set and by the reaction of the audience, I may have been the only one in the room who hadn’t seen this band before. A big slice of Alternative Rock to spice up the evening.
This was the launch of Stone Cold’s latest album Evil Robot Clones and the faithful were there in force. Stone Cold don’t play a lot of gigs in a year so when they do turn out, it becomes an event. Heavy Metal jackets adorn the room, with Black Sabbath, AC/DC and Metallica patches prevalent. No formal introduction, just the sound of a motorcycle revving hard and heading off into the distance, through the P.A. and a “Thank you for coming out and supporting original music” from Dr Phil, guitarist/vocalist before the band fired into The Unnamed from the new album. Phil’s vocals angrily spitting out the words to the song, with Karen Moon (vocals) keeping the song in check with her fine voice.
The classic North of the River from their first album received a loud applause, as the fans in the room recognized the song. This is heavy metal at it’s best, loud and driving hard. “You might know this next song” laughed Phil “Or you might not” and Karen took over lead vocals for a version of ZZ Top’s Tush. Judging by the response in the room, everyone knew the song. A faithful version with some neat flying riffs from lead guitarist Ben Jarmin.
“Any witches in the room” led to the brilliant Burn the Witch (check out the fun video on YouTube) and then “The next song is also about a witch, spooky” from Phil before the band set ablaze It Ends Here, Karen and Phil swapping vocals throughout the song.
In my humble opinion, Darkness Falls from their debut album is a certified heavy metal classic. It is up there with the best of songs from any metal band around the world. Tonight, it was an epic ten minutes of high-octane fury, with a red-hot guitar/drum section in the middle. The band were on fire for this one heavy MFer of a song.
The run home was head banging glory. The Black Sabbath song, Children of the Grave was sung stunningly by Karen, channeling Ronnie James Dio beautifully, before Broken Bones, the final track on their new album closed out the set, all band members playing hard. A band bow followed and Phil asked if we wanted one more? You bet. The title track of the new album Evil Robot Clones was rolled out, Brad Tsoumbris hitting the drums harder than ever and Chad Cosgrove’s bass lines pounding around the room. (This is a far cry from Chad’s other band, a Country and Western band).
Stone Cold’s Facebook page describes the band as “5 misfits playing uncompromising hi-octane rock n roll with a focus on top notch live performances leaving the punters wanting more”. Simple, but so true. The music scene in Adelaide is alive and well. These three bands prove it.
Live Review by Geoff Jenke