Live Review: The Smith Street Band, Luca Brasi, Joelistics, Jess Locke Band

With four bands on the bill spanning folk to hip-hop to punk, tonight was something of a tour de force of live Australian music. The sold out crowd, decked out in a sea of Smith Street merch, soaked up every drop of it.

Opening the night were Melbourne’s Jess Locke Band, the live vehicle of Locke’s solo efforts. The crowd started to spill into the venue as the band pumped out their lo-fi folky tunes.

Completely switching it up was Joelistics, who seemed an odd choice of support for a punk show. However, it’s no secret he has major love of the headliner and, although many people initially seemed unsure how to act towards such an act, there were fists in the air by the end of his set.

Main support came from Poison City label mates Luca Brasi, who opted to go on this tour before even starting their own for the recently released If This Is All We’re Going To Be. Two songs in and lead singer Tyler Richardson had the crowd cheering at his comments. “It’s Saturday night, let's have a fucking party,” he said, before launching into Aeroplane.

All throughout the set, you could see the genuine passion for what they do bleed through. Constantly thanking the “fucking legends” in the crowd for singing along, they also sang the praises of the security who were handling the crowd. “It’s so fucking good to see the respect.”

This was a sentiment shared by headliners The Smith Street Band, with Wil Wagner acknowledging the turn of events that went down at a previous show. “One show was great, one show was fucked”. But if anything, they seemed to be more energised than ever and out to prove why they’re one of Australia’s most beloved bands.

Opening with a solo rendition of I Love Life, the band snuck up on stage behind Wagner as he sang, immediately switching into Surrey Dive. It’s always impressive when a crowd can drown out the band, and that’s exactly what happened during the chorus, creating an instant fist in the air moment. Wagner was even taken aback, grinning whilst commenting “you guys are loud”.

After that, the crowd moshed around to countless singalongs, getting extremely animated at times. With the success the band has garnered, it sometimes felt that their “take care of each other” message was lost on the ever wide-ranging crowd, and indeed, new song Death To The Lads might even be a reference to this.

Even still, the vibe of the night remained electric. As the band closed the set with the title track of their hugely successful album Throw Me In The River, it was clear to see the amount of love the crowd had, singing as loud as they possibly could before the venue lights were turned back on.