Live Review: Descendents, Nursery Crimes

Melbourne legends Nursery Crimes may not have played together for over ten years but from their first note we witnessed a band that somehow remains at the height of their musical power. It may as well as have been 1991 at the Enmore as the five-piece outfit ripped through a set of powerful yet melodic punk rock (including an off the hook cover of Eleanor Rigby) to rapturous applause. Based on their success with this limited run of shows you’ve got to wonder whether Nursery Crimes are tempted to give it another go on a more permanent basis? 

You don’t really need me to tell you that the Descendents were incredible. They always are. Churning through somewhere in the region of 7800 songs, the guys, led by the ever nerdy Milo Auckerman (he was even rocking a CamelBak under his shirt that made him look like the hunchback of Notre Dame!), delivered melodic hardcore perfection. Starting off with the title track from their mid-'90s renaissance LP Everything Sucks, the boys delivered something from every stage of their long and storied career including a brace of tracks from their new album (Shameless Halo and Without Love were especially impressive). Of course classic tracks like Pervert, Bikeage, Nothing With You, I Don’t Want To Grow Up and the greatest Descendents track ever written, Coolidge, were greeted with an almost religious devotion. 

Yeah, this was a masterclass – the fact we all expected it doesn’t diminish just how vital this band is. Although keeping between-song banter to a minimum, the band themselves seemed to be having a blast and their complete lack of ego showed in the ease with which they glided through a set that included two encores. 

It may only be February but I can’t see any punk or hardcore band (let alone any other musician quite frankly) topping this show for the rest of the year. During the set one brave girl jumped up on stage and ran over to give drummer Bill Stevenson a kiss on the cheek. I’d like to think she did it on behalf of all us.