Live Review: The Love Junkies, Foam, Aborted Tortoise, Cool Band, Evan Walsh

“Yeah, it’s my birthday party. If anyone’s reviewing this you can get fucked!” The Love Junkies guitarist and vocalist Mitch McDonald spluttered into the microphone. It was one of those nights – loud and messy, energetic and brash. A sold-out hometown Love Junkies show.

Up and coming songwriter Evan Walsh opened the night. An impressive solo performer, Walsh used his guitar body for percussion, drawing on influences from Band Of Horses and City & Colour. His songwriting was endearing, honest and perfectly executed.

Fremantle supergroup Cool Band are all fun. Sharing vocals between the drummer and three guitarists, Cool Band are the masters of the call and response chorus, chuckling and repeating “Cool Band” between each song. Every tune was messy, and one member of the group was always laughing uncontrollably. But it felt right. A song dedicated to Transperth and bringing goon on the train was the highlight, with its yell-along chorus, “Fuck you, you’re not even cops!”.

Five-piece surf punk act Aborted Tortoise took to the stage and attacked the room with frenzied guitar riffs. They blurred the lines of psychedelic and ‘70s punk, reminiscent of Ramones and The Saints. Foam have mastered fuzzed-out guitar and lyrical hooks, opening their set with track So Far So Good. Heavily inspired by Nirvana, they belted out tunes with passion and gusto.

The Love Junkies ripped into their set with an unhinged ferocity. Mitch McDonald broke his whammy bar by the end of the second song, asking the previous bands for a replacement (“It’s my only trick”). It didn’t slow them down – Chemical Motivation and You Are The Pins In My Ears. You Are The Salt In My Eyes pumped the crowd up more, as the whole room swelled and swayed with each angular guitar hook. The crowd broke into a Happy Birthday sing-along dedicated to McDonald: “Because it’s my birthday, does everyone wanna sing along?” McDonald swallowed four birthday shots quickly, and continued to pour everything he had into each tune. He exited the stage quickly after Black Sheep Blues, leaving Robbie Rumble and Lewis Walsh playing a song off their recent EP Flight Test without him. McDonald made his way back to stage for one final song: “Got a bit of a thing, my pancreas shit itself when I was 13, fucking pancreas – had to run off mid-set ‘cause I ran out of sugar,” he apologised, before finishing with Blowing On The Devil’s Strumpet and a bit of crowd surfing. Extensive touring has helped The Love Junkies grow, and they’ve become a force to be reckoned with. Go see them. Soon.