I remember standing in a crowded Gold Coast dive bar late last year screaming out the words "I like your old stuff better than your new stuff," as Regurgitator energised the hot and sweaty crowd with a huge dose of nostalgia.
There was talk of a new album (and the 'new stuff' that comes with it) and tour covering multiple states. At the time I was just happy to see The Gurg on the Goldie.With the release of the new album 'Invader', we see them return to the Gold Coast (14 June) with plenty of fresh material to add to the set. The 'Invader' album is distinctly Gurg. The guitars combined with the electronic music wrap us in that familiar awesomeness that we have come to love over the last 30-odd years.
The seventeenth stop on the It's So Invasive tour was at Miami Marketta. The awesome venue combines a night food market with a number of stages for free music and ticketed gigs. The crowd started filling up Studio 56 in anticipation of these absolute legends that originated from just up the M1.
The deceptively named Party Dozen had the challenging task of warming up the crowd on a cool winter night. The Sydney duo consists of Kirsty Tickle on saxophone and Jonathan Boulet on drums and the sampler.
Party Dozen - image © Radical Imaging
Covering a lot of genres (apparently including jazz, hardcore, psychedelic, no-wave and industrial) they offer a unique sound, which can be up to the listener to interpret. A lot of their set is instrumental with the duo adding to sounds they have created and sampled.
Throughout the various songs, Kristy adds vocals via a unique technique that has her screaming directly into the bell of her saxophone. The sound is then altered via an effects pedal to create a unique experience.
The song 'Macca The Mutt' came mid set with the recorded vocals from Nick Cave making up part of the arrangement. If you were to listen carefully you would be told by the music legend that "I've got a mutt, I've got a mutt, I've got a mutt, got a mutt, got a mutt called Macca".
Regurgitator kicked off their set with the reminder that "I'm just a sucker like you, I'm just a sucker like you," as we get a dose of the 1995 'New' EP and the first track creatively titled 'Track 1'.
Regurgitator - image © Radical Imaging
Quan Yeomans is on lead vocals and guitar. Ben Ely is on bass guitar and lends his voice to quite a few songs. Up the back we have Peter Kostic on drums. We get our first taste of the 'Unit' album with a song about licking a certain part of the anatomy and 'Bongzilla' takes us back to 'Dirty Pop Fantasy' from 2013.
The introduction of Sarah Lim on keytar and guitar brings us to our first dose of material from the new album with the title track 'Invader'. Sarah's energy is infectious as hair flies and the keytar adds its unique synthesizer sound to the show.
"Are you the wrong people?" Quan asks as the first half of the show gives us a good dose of the new stuff. 'Wrong People', 'Pest', the social media-inspired 'Content', 'Dirty Old Men', 'Pee Pee Man' and 'Tsunami' get their unofficial Queensland live debut.
Regurgitator - image © Radical Imaging
Classics from 'Unit' and 'Tu-Plang' fit nicely among the new material as we are told of 'The World Of Sleaze', a 'Polyester Girl' and happiness coming from a packet of fortune cookies.
The band take a short break as the spoken word track of 'Invader' called 'The Bastard Poem That Nobody Wanted' confuses the hell out of those who haven't listened through the entirety of the new album.
Apparently at one of the under-age shows the lyrics to the next song were changed to "I sucked a lollipop to get what I want". The Gold Coast crowd (and the band) were going with the original lyrics as we were told of sucking, blood and spunk and a 'Bong In My Eye' as the second half of the show kicked off.
Regurgitator - image © Radical Imaging
The Gold Coast had a legendary venue called The Playroom. It has been over 20 years since Regurgitator played there, but their new song 'Cocaine Runaway' does it best to (apparently) pay tribute to the notorious location.
We are left with many questions to ponder, like "what's at the end of Satan’s rainbow?" and "is it just me or we tripping?" as old and new songs combine together to create an awesome set.
The crowd sings that familiar lyric proclaiming 'I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff', but I think we agree with Quan that the new stuff is also awesome as 'This Is Not A Pop Song' kicks in.
The set list is massive (26 songs), and we get a taste of 'Unit' with our favourite tribute to the artist formerly known as Prince, a bit of '...Art' with 'I Wanna Be A Nudist' and the classic album 'Tu-Plang' with 'Blubber Boy'. The show is wrapped up with a cool cover of a Simple Mind's song as Ben on the mic asks: "Don't you forget about me."
Regurgitator - image © Radical Imaging
This was an unforgettable gig. The new album is awesome with some absolute classics on it that we got to hear live for first time.
- written by Justin Gittins
More photos from the concert.
