A Death in the family, Cockfight shootout, Young & Restless, Magic Dirt - Collingwood Town Hall

All Ages gigs are tough; everyone claims there are not enough taking place and not enough opportunities for under 18’s to attend live music. Unyet when an organisation goes to lengths to organise an all ages show with a strong line up at a prestigious and large venue, attendance is a little disappointing. Why is this? Perhaps running an all ages show in the evening is too late for some parents to allow their children to attend. Perhaps the lack of alcohol dissuades over eighteens attending, which if true, is a sad fact, that a vast majority of people are only attending gigs to get drunk, not for the music. Whatever the reasons, the audience is small tonight, slowly building but never filling the large, spacious and regal Collingwood Town Hall.

A Death in the Family could be described as an Emo band, that constant chugging guitar and strained vocals present throughout most of their set and songs, the guys put on a good show despite the early hour and lack of audience, quipping ‘We’re not used to playing venues this small√Æ but their songs need more dynamics, more variation. With a name like Cockfight Shootout the band could only be a good old-fashioned Ozzie rock band, all dressed in black, all Gibson Les Paul’s, all Marshall stacks. Good solid stuff, fun and dependable, but nothing original or surprising. Young and Restless are perhaps the one band on the bill tonight that might attract the largest all ages crowd, and the audience is now reaching it’s peak and even starting to move it’s feet. At their core Young and Restless are yet another jagged angular guitar band, but there’s something about them, something rawer than their peers, something more challenging and interesting. An exciting discordance between guitars, a front woman who paces the stage like a dancing tiger, an enormous bass player who’s eyes are barely seen and some great songs that get the heart pumping and the pulse racing. Magic Dirt are an institution, and like all long running institutions, they’re mellowing and their priorities are changing, frequently referencing their children and even allowing them onstage to cutely dance along to the music. If you didn’t know already the songs are big rocking slabs of guitar led by the powerful vocals of Adalita Srsen. Despite some of the dark lyrics lurking beneath the surface it’s rousing music, and the perfect way to end the night, there will be no encores, it’s time for parents to collect their children? On and off stage.

Published in InPress