Only a few days after I caught antipodean pub punks Amyl & The Sniffers, it’s time for an Aussie triumvirate of punks in the form of The Chats, Bad//Dreems and Crocodylus, touring together on these shores for the first time. The Chats seem to be generating a lot of publicity for themselves at the moment, so an opportunity to take it in for myself in person was far too good to miss!
Crocodylus take to the stage and I have to admit to being quite impressed. The crowd is growing as they begin, but it doesn’t take too long for any of us to start getting into the spirit of things, with a couple of fo mosh pits even breaking out towards the end of their set. While the almost capacity crowd continues to grow during the set, Crocodylus keep the pace high, getting the adrenaline pumping and putting a smile on to more than a few faces. Some heads start nodding, feet tapping and it’s clear that they’ve done an excellent job starting off the night. A very good, competent old school punk type set.
Bad//Dreems come on and while they’re stylistically more polished than Crocodylus, I’m left quite ambivalent towards their overall performance. It’s not that they were bad, but there is a definite drop in energy and this translates to a weird sensation in the crowd – not exactly an anger but definitely something that doesn’t feel quite right amongst everyone around me. There’s no mosh pit and the energy has definitely dropped from the crowd while I’m left feeling a bit ill at ease, something that seems quite systematic and that grows through the set, to the point I say this to another of our writers, Jonny Bakes, who has joined me at the gig, who agrees, with the sense apparently quite palpable for him, also.
The set is pretty well delivered, apart from the frontman coming across quite drunk as he seems to struggle with keeping his balance on a few occasions, though this affected neither his nor any of the band’s, delivery. Had there been a better reaction from the crowd, or if they had opened the night, this review of them would have been far more positive – this just simply wasn’t their night, despite the performance itself being pretty good in itself, due to the drop in energy levels around me.
The palpable sense of foreboding I had earlier dissipates immediately upon The Chats taking to the stage, with the crowd loudly acclaiming the arrival of the Aussie trio and getting straight down to it with mosh pits, loudly shouting along to the lyrics and just generally raising the roof at every possible point. The crowd surfing starts quite early on also, with the energy reaching ridiculous levels, a place that they never seem to drop from, as the cold snap outside means nothing compared to the sheer body heat and exertion of almost every single crowd member around me. Their garage punk sound is full of fun, rebellion and just all about having a good time, with lyrics that echo the infectious nature of their live performance.
Rather surprisingly, breakthrough track ‘Smoko’ is neither the last song of the main body of the set, nor in the encore, but sits in the penultimate position of the main set, with previous ‘Video of the Week’ winner ‘Identity Theft’ ending the main set. ‘Smoko’ sees the guitarist decide to go crowd surfing on his own after the whole band had done so to the previous number ‘Billy Backwash’, something that the whole crowd greet with a loud roar that reflects quite the level of affection and energy that seems to reflect and refract between band and audience throughout the set. It’s hard to pick specific songs out from the set as high points, given the constant high level they perform at throughout the set, though those already mentioned, plus ‘Heartstroke’ and both encores in ‘Pub Feed’ – which sees both support bands run out to join The Chats on stage to party and grab a quick photo at the end – and evening closer ‘Better Than You’. With this over, there’s time for a final roar from the crowd before we all set off, happy after a hell of an evening of energy and passion.
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photo taken at Limelight 2, Belfast. © The Dark Queen/Über Rock.
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