There was this fast bowler back in my high school cricket days, perhaps the quickest kid in the district. Facing up to him one Saturday morning, he pitched his opening delivery just short of a length. Like a python attacking its prey, the ball reared up sharply, honing on my rib cage. I fended defensively, somehow turning the wide of fine leg for a boundary. “Nice shot off the hip,” came the call from the crusty old bloke watching the game. If only he knew.
I was 15 years old then. Off the Hip Records has just turned 15. But in contrast to my ungainly schoolboy stroke, Off the Hip can cast its proverbial eye of a rich catalogue of garage, psych, powerpop and rock’n’roll. A relatively recent label signing, Juliet Seizure and the Tremor Dolls, had flown across from Adelaide. Apparently their last album pipped King Gizzard for album of the year on Adelaide community radio station 3D. There was a bit of parochialism tied up in that, but it’s well-deserved regardless. Three-part female harmonies, surfing Ramones licks, beachbum punk attitude. As long as the power stays on, this band is going to do good things.
One of Off the Hip’s earlier bands, Wollongong’s Pink Fits, was back in town for the first time in almost a decade. The guys are older, and probably wiser, and just as potent. Off the Hip owner Mick Baty once remarked that Pink Fits were bullet-proof. Judging by their set, the fortress has weathered pretty damn well over the years. The slick pink suits were missing but the violent three-chord garage blues licks were there in spades, spearing up at the crowd like that shortish opening delivery of yore. Karl Weber’s garage wail was part Gerry Rosalie, part Jon Spencer; on guitar, Lenny Curley was a man working off an insult. Every song grabbed you around the throat and pinned you to the wall, whipping you senseless with a Pipeline-esque rhythmic barrage. The main set finished and Pink Fits played another, six, maybe seven songs, a collage of garage punk obscurities. It would’ve been great if it had lasted forever, but it couldn’t.
Words by Patrick Emery
Image by Zo Damage
Highlight – Seeing Pink Fits again.
Lowlight – that we probably won’t see them for a while.
Crowd Favourite – Chickenhawk.
