It’s not often a gig is packed to the rafters before the support act even starts, but when you’ve got a band like Polish Club warming the stage, people had a reason to arrive early. The self-described “sweatiest rock band in Sydney” came out with all guns blazing – frontman David Novak’s impeccable vocals and continual banter with drummer JH on show. They confessed, “We know you’re not here to see Polish Club, but we don’t really give a fuck,” before belting out their best and loudest tracks, including Don’t Fuck Me Over, Beat It and even a half-improvised cover of Lesley Gore’s You Don’t Own Me. They finished with Beeping, which unsurprisingly brought the house down.
The Preatures’ always-inspiring frontwoman Izzi Manfredi embraced the adoring crowd to open with I Know A Girl. As expected, the set mostly comprised of songs from the new album, including the title track, Lip Balm, Mess It Up and I Like You – but they also littered the night with favourites from their back-catalogue, including Somebody’s Talking, Cruel and Ordinary.
A few of the new slower songs (which usually had Izzy alone on the keyboard under a spotlight), like Magick and Cherry Ripe, were nice but almost dampened the party atmosphere built earlier on.
Thankfully things picked up again with Yanada, which uses lyrics written in Darug (one of the Indigenous language groups of the Sydney region) and had everyone embracing the powerful message the group was conveying onstage.
They finished with banger Better Than It Ever Could Be and new song Night Machine, before leaving the stage to a thundering “Encore” chant. Izzy came back out for one more emotional solo on the keyboard, called Your Fan, before the rest of the band re-joined her to give fans Is This How You Feel, getting everyone dancing. All in all, the night was the perfect way to say goodbye to another shitty Melbourne winter.
Highlight: Two massive bands for the price of one.
Lowlight: The guy who clapped loudly the whole time, but completely out of time.
Crowd Favourite: Yanada.
