If you haven’t heard of the Hard-Ons, then you probably spent your nineties / early noughties listening to the Spice Girls, but we won’t hold that against you. The Aussie punk rockers formed in 1981 and are the longest running punk band this country has ever seen.
The Blurst of Times Festival is approaching and legendary Aussie punk rockers Hard-Ons will be there! Been around for a while now, but still alive as ever.
Unsurprisingly, the three dudes (Peter Black, Ray Ahn and Peter Kostic) have managed to develop quite the cult following of Aussie hard rock aficionados. They’ve had quite the musical journey over the years taking from slightly more suburbs garage rock to heavy metal and then back to hard rock again.
The Hard-Ons ability to adapt to ever changing markets is probably what has kept them around this long as it takes creative flexibility to keep on the game. Arguably, though, they’ve never quite aimed for the top as they’ve often been described as aiming their music at a niche market and thus attracting just that. Slightly, taking onus with this assessment, The Hard-Ons have actually produced (without compromising on the gritty) good quality music in their given genres and their long-standing fan-base has kept them supported throughout it.
Their 2008 album Dick Cheese has a bit of a the Cults-like post-punk finish with a The Smiths like pure Australianess to it. Following on from this, they injected a bit more grittiness into their sound on the album Love is a Battlefield of Wounded Hearts with a sort of The New Bomb Turks feel about it. Finally, on the probably aptly titled Most People Are Nicer Than Us they finally move into full blown heavy metal with utter classics like Don’t Fear the Reeperbahn.
Their rich musical history has left them a subject of different hoards of fans over time from different generations essentially now making them Australian hard rock royalty. The Hard-Ons will soon be gracing a stage near you when they play The Blurst of Times festival alongside some other great acts.
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