Flying spit, boots hitting the ceiling and enough sound to shatter safety glass: we challenge you to find a more potent live combo than The Murlocs and The Pinheads.
After the raging success of their second album Young Blindness which moulded our mind fuzz last year, The Murlocs are back at it. The Melbourne five-piece have hit the road again, playing a couple of shows in Sydney and Melbourne to promote their new tune Noble Soldier. The single is the first from their forthcoming project, slated for a mid-year release.
These guys got together in a surf town south of Melbourne when they were in high school. They released their debut Loopholes in 2014 and have gone on to well and truly claim their place in the burgeoning Australian garage scene.
Their Sydney leg was expectedly a riot. Showing up for support in their best and most outrageous fashion were Gong residents The Pinheads. If you’ve heard anything about these guys, you know they don’t just come for tea and biscuits.
The crowd was off before the gun had even sounded. Frontman Jez was occupying the space as far as his mic cord would allow, hurling himself into the already packed out venue. The rest of the set was spent emitting a wall of infernal noise and utterly obliterating the room.
Then, of course, keeping up the pace was Uncle Murl. Their live shows are always completely off chops. The crowd was shoving violently from side to side, punters taking any chance to surf along the top while singer Ambrose Kenny-Smith squawked along to the thumping blues of the band in the back.
You knew that every single person there is a die-hard fan, screaming along to the lyrics as Smith belted them out in that strangled falsetto. You honestly wouldn’t rather be anywhere else but at the front of that mosh, being crushed against the stage.
Two sold out shows isn’t enough, goddammit! We just can’t get enough of these guys.
Photos by Dani Hansen.
