Live Review: Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Ever since Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever released their first mini-LP, Talk Tight, back in 2016, the band have been on a tough schedule of touring Australia, the US, Europe and anywhere else that will have them. They have captured the world’s ears with their hook-laden songs which fuse modern-day, jangly indie-rock, Australian rock from the early '80s and an alt-country twang. They’ve been called the Australian version of the War On Drugs.

Tonight the five Melburnians hit Adelaide for a sold out show. They strut on stage and assume their positions. A quick, “G’day Adelaide,” and they launch into The Hammer - the final track from their debut album, Hope Downs, released on the highly respected Sub Pop label, famous for launching the careers of Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Nirvana. Need I say more?

Watching this quintet grooving away together on stage you know they are really five mates. They have this connection on stage that only good bands do. Tonight they concentrated on the more uptempo tracks in their catalogue, which kept the energy levels high and the crowd bouncing along. There’s none of that "waiting a few songs to warm up the crowd" gimmick, the band are in top gear from when the first note is struck.

The band power through tracks off their recently released Hope Downs album as well their two EPs. The high amounts of energy are evident as the songs seemed more uptempo as they sprinted through versions of Clean Slate, Talking Straight and Wither With You. The advantage about seeing a band so early on in their career, is you get to hear the deeper cuts and not just the radio or Spotify hits. As mentioned, the band only have two EPs and a ten-track album to their name, yet they flew through a 16-track strong setlist and all of them were “hits” to the fans as they danced and sang along to all of the words. 

What works incredibly well for the band is there isn’t one lead singer, there’s actually three - Fran Keaney, Tom Russo and Joe White - each bringing their own style and swagger to the songs they sing. And behind these front men is the engine room that fires this beast, in the form of Joe Russo (bass) and Marcel Tussie (drums). Tussie is just pure energy, barely sitting on his stool the entire show while Russo just kept that groove going effortlessly the entire set.

The highlight of the 70-minute set was French Press. Somehow the band took the energy levels up a notch which just put the crowd in a frenzy – there was even some crowd surfing! The band extended the song by jamming part way into it with Keaney swapping onto drums until the end of the song. Pure guitar pop heaven!