Live Review: The Snowdroppers w/ The Strums, Twin Fires & The Hard Aches @ The Foundry

I’m going to preface this review by saying I don’t remember the last time I was at a show with four consistently great bands. I’ve seen plenty of shows with one great band, and a handful of average bands, and vice versa. But four great bands is almost unheard of, for me at least, this show had four great bands.

“It felt like everyone in the room was screaming the words back up to the stage, and the energy bouncing around the room was contagious.”

Twin Fires were very cool. They had an upbeat folk-meets-punk sound that I couldn’t quite put my finger on…until my friend Chris leaned over and said “this band is kind of like (new) Mumford & Sons meets Violent Soho”. I thought he was pretty spot on with that description. Their music was upbeat, their bassist was bopping along, and they did a great job of getting the crowd warmed up for the night that was to come.

Next up was a punk outfit duo from Adelaide The Hard Aches. Delivering loud, energetic music with hard hitting the lyrics (always a winning combination for me), the band smashed their set. Their final song of the evening, the duo’s single I Get Like This had the crowd enthralled from the first line: “I get like this when I get f*cked up, and I get f*cked up when I get like this”. It felt like everyone in the room was screaming the words back up to the stage, and the energy bouncing around the room was contagious.

By the time the third act of the evening, Brisbane’s very own The Strums, were taking to the stage the venue had really started to fill up. The three-piece played their upbeat set as the crowd jumped and danced along. A few songs in, the frontman announced it was the bassist Helen’s first show with the band, saying: “I asked Helen if she could learn bass guitar in 4 months, and she said hell yeah I can, I can learn it in three!”. Helen (and the rest of the band) did a great job, and the crowd seemed thoroughly entertained by the energy The Strums delivered through their own brand of fun punk.

“Helen (and the rest of the band) did a great job, and the crowd seemed thoroughly entertained by the energy The Strums delivered through their own brand of fun punk.”

Next up was the final band of the night, the headlining act The Snowdroppers. The band emerged on stage and immediately the charisma of frontman, Johnny Wishbone was be felt by all, as he strutted about the stage. The band began with some of their slower numbers, before Wishbone announced: “this is for anyone who has kids, it’s a song called Devil Child” launching into a bluesy number from their latest album ‘Business’.

As the set continued Wishbone ensured the audience were engaged, encouraging the crowd to change the lyrics to the band’s 2013 hit Moving Out Of Eden, and sing “I f*cking hate these new lockout laws” as the chorus instead. Moving along, Wishbone turned to his band, saying, “Here’s an old song. Let’s see if they know it” before launching into Good Drugs Bad Women. This had the biggest response of the night, causing beefy grown men to dance with each other, and the chorus to escape from nearly every mouth in the room.

“…causing beefy grown men to dance with each other, and the chorus to escape from nearly every mouth in the room.”

The end of the set saw Wishbone pull out a harmonica and announce they weren’t going to play any games in regards to encores, they’d just be coming straight back on. He proceeded to do a ceremonious mic drop, before bounding off stage. The band came back on and the audience was serenaded with an acapella rendition of the first few lines of Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U. For the final song, Wishbone invited musicians from the opening bands back on stage to tie off the night, singing the end of the show together.

All in all, it was a great night that showed just how much talent the Australian music scene has on offer. Now let’s just hope the higher-ups heard the chanting and take heed: we f*cking hate these new lock out laws. #KeepBrisbaneOpen

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