As Brisbane was preparing for heavy weather, a massive storm brewed inside The Foundry (9 December) thanks to American hardcore punks Pissed Jeans.
The band have released five albums over thirteen years including this year’s ‘Why Love Now', but have never made it over to Australia until now. But on the final stop of their debut Australian tour, the band gave fans a raucous show to remember.
Local openers Kitchen’s Floor often confuse audiences, and this time was no different. “Glen! Where’s Glen?” called frontman Matt Kennedy. Once their drummer was located, the trio were joined by a mystery man wearing a green hoodie to slur down the mic over the band’s shambolic playing.
But underneath all the noise and drunken shouting is something strange and endearing. It’s hard to explain and they’re all the better for it.
The noise continued with Melbourne trio Batpiss, who sound as filthy as their name.
The band played selections from their excellent 2017 album ‘Rest In Piss’, sounding even more feral live. Drums were beaten, vocals were guttural howls and the guitarists played like they were wrangling rabid animals.
As fans waited for Pissed Jeans, a strange warbling voice caught everyone’s attention. It was singer Matt Korvette singing about the venue’s messy toilets, stepping in shit and disparaging the equipment provided to them.
While the drums and amps may have been smaller than Matt liked, the band showed it wasn’t the size that mattered, but how you use it.
Pissed Jeans pushed those tiny amps to their limits throughout, coating the venue with their sludge riffs. Sweat flung from band members and wooden chips could be seen flying from drummer Sean McGuinness’ sticks.
Among it all was Matt, who lost himself to the primal rage of the music. The frontman howled and moaned through tracks like ‘Have You Ever Been Furniture’ and ‘She Is Science Fiction’.
When he wasn’t singing, Matt was convulsing, flailing and throwing himself across the stage. Matt’s energy was reciprocated by the crowd, who were whipped into a frenzy of wild moshing.
“That shit was practice,” Matt taunted upon returning for an encore. It’s hard to imagine anything wilder than what the audience had just seen, but the band showed they weren’t joking. Matt took off his singlet as the band played the frantic ‘Boring Girl’, becoming even wilder than before.
The closing minutes were dedicated to creating noise, with guitarist Bradley Fry putting his guitar on a lucky fan so he could mess with his amp, and Matt taking Randy Huth’s abandoned bass.
Even more deafening than Pissed Jeans’ set was the silence after. It may be some time before anyone at tonight’s show can hear again, but Pissed Jeans surely made fans hope they’ll return soon to do it all over again.
