Pennywise @ The Tivoli Theatre Review

Hanging from the rafters would be an understatement for the first leg of Pennywise’s Australian tour.

Just ask the punter who made the mistake of shimmying out onto the lighting bar in the middle of the room in preparation for his entry into the pit, then letting go and falling five metres into the crowd. Talk about taking stage diving to another level. Result = eviction from venue.

Click here for photos from the show.

First band off the rank were Newcastle’s very own Local Resident Failure. Nice-little-nasty sound to warm-up the crowd. The Brisbane punters gave them some well-deserved respect as they stormed through a short set.

Local Resident Failure - image © Wild Eyes Photography

Next were Anti Flag. These guys have a presence and stage act that had a thousand-plus crowd fixated with their sound and antics, and it was very evident they have many fans in this town.

Great songs with the climax being – fuck it, let’s put the whole drum kit in the moshpit and play our last song with our fans (thank god for radio mics). They loved it and gave these guys massive thanks with love and loudness.

Anti Flag - image © Wild Eyes Photography

One of the fastest changeovers in history saw the crew set the stage for Pennywise. These Americans don’t mess around when it comes to getting their bosses on stage, on time. Talk about whipping a crowd into a frenzy.

It’s fairly common these days for an act to play an album in its entirety live, as Pennywise delivered the goods in spectacular fashion. With great sound and awesome energy coming from stage, the punter barrier coped a hiding from the pit and I'm certain some security will be sore from a pounding like never before. I would have seen no less than 20 foaming and frothing bloody punters licking their wounds after the show. A decent pit will do that.

Pennywise - image © Wild Eyes Photography

All in all this was a 'tear-us-a-new-one' kind of show. I’m sure the rest of the tour will be the same. Great choice of line-up and thanks to the wise men for an awesome night of PUNK. We needed that!

Click here for photos from the show.

Written by Dan Nebe