As a newcomer to Australia, the vibrant music scene of South Australia has astonished me – week in, week out.
The wealth of talent, camaraderie and pure passion its artists wear on their sleeves has been infectious, inspiring and life-affirming.The tight-knit community that now, some 30-plus concerts deep, are becoming gradually familiar to me and appear to share the same enthusiasm and commitment that I do – which is a tremendous excitement.
It's become somewhat apparent that a certain hotel/ pub and its hallowed stage may be playing a huge, unsung role in nurturing this scene and its thriving energy, which I suspect is the Crown & Anchor Hotel, known affectionately around here as the Cranker.
This very venue hosted the grand finale of Adelaide's own West Thebarton on their 2023 'Victory' tour. The first of two instantly sold-out homecoming shows (2 June) also coincided with the release of their latest EP and tour namesake, 'Victory' – marking their first new music released since 2019 single 'Tops'.
Junk Harmony - image © Mike Lockheart
Opening both nights were Junk Harmony, an engaging lo-fi alt rock band also from Adelaide. With dream-pop songwriting sensibilities backed by serious musical chops, the four piece delighted those in attendance with some of the evening's less abrasive material, performing a soundscape of brightly optimistic guitar-led exploration.
The Empty Threats followed, and are a group who are, in no uncertain terms, an extremely exciting prospect.
Driven by a motorik beat, they're an enigmatic punk band with a penchant for nonconforming theatrical performances and strikingly confronting yet highly melodic music.
They effortlessly shifted gear on a dime between cacophonic angst and fury, into heart rendering crooning by way of vocalist/ clarinetist Stu Patterson's diverse range, poetic musings and ballet-like contortions.
The Empty Threats - image © Mike Lockheart
Their set conjured the same feelings of soulful fury that an early IDLES performance would, and indeed carried itself with the same force of a thundering road train of powerful riffing and noisy guitar crescendos.
Songs such as 'K', 'Sightseeing' and 'Sanity Russel' were a thrilling journey between unpredictable jazzy passages, which twisted and mutated into jarring, maniacal classic punk, all whilst being hugely melodic.
The effervescent energy that West Thebarton consistently bring to their performances was immediate upon arrival on the intimate Cranker stage (3 June).
Ceaselessly grinning from ear to ear for the duration, bombastic frontman Ray Dalfsen commenced to collide two cans of Cranker's foamiest lager above his head, pouring the remainder all over himself in a torrent of bubbles and barley.
West Thebarton - image © Mike Lockheart
As the quadruple guitar choir of Brian Bolado, Josh Healey, Josh Battersby and Tom Gordon screeched into life, drummer Caitlin Thomas' four count kicked off opener 'Humble Heart', setting the tone for a 65-minute tour de-force of emphatic, cathartic and stunningly loud rock & roll.
Following up in quick succession with crowd pleaser 'Basics', an almost unanimous sing-along was belted straight back at the band who, as Dalfsen earnestly articulated, were genuinely thrilled to be finishing off their run of shows in their home town.
Clearly enthused to be playing to a capacity house and sharing new material live for the first time at home, local-airwave-bothering single 'George Michael' sat at home amongst the group's beloved classic material, at least judging by the audience's enthused chanting along with its insanely catchy chorus.
However, road-worn tracks like 'Bible Camp' and 'Moving Out' provided a rare opportunity to see a group so engaged in an arena-worthy performance as if to transcend the bounds of being local musicians performing on a club stage.
West Thebarton - image © Mike Lockheart
Closely entangling and intertwining amongst and into each other (and the crowd), the guitarists and bassist Nick Horvat played off seismic riffs, thrashing their guitars into the air above them, with Bolado thrusting his six-string into the ceiling atop his amplifiers.
All the while frontman Dalfsen leapt and bounded, punctuating the most thrilling peaks of his band's anthemic music, seemingly tireless and fuelled by the motivating messaging of his lyrics and one would suspect, a cocktail of beer and Irish whiskey.
This was a homecoming done right and set the bar extremely, but not unreachably high for the immense calibre of incredible rock music that SA is currently producing.
More photos from the show.
