Gig Review Punk Rock Resurrection @ The Bendigo Hotel 5/11/22
Earlier this month I attended the Punk Rock Resurrection show at The Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood, Victoria. It was one of two shows at the venue that Saturday night, both of which featured bands from the Victorian punk community.
I caught an uber to the show with a couple band members and some equipment, friendly security staff directed us through to load in (yep, I did roadie work for a punk band) and then we made our way back out and through the main bar to the area where the show would happen. It’s a large sized room with a bar, stage, toilets and a beer garden out back.
Wot Rot
The place already seems over half full as the opening act Wot Rot took the stage a little after 7pm and immediately raised the energy of the room. A handful of punks started moving around front of stage and the show seemed to have started, I’m not familiar with a lot of the bands 30-minute set but Wot Rot had people in the crowd singing along to catchy chorus’s like “let’s get drunk cause the governments fucked”.
Blowhole
After watching Wot Rot play, I headed to the beer garden via the door left of stage and that area was packed with every kind of punk you can imagine as well as a few normies. I had a quick smoke and went back in, the changeover between bands was 20 minutes so Blowhole took the stage around 8pm.
During the first song the microphone wasn’t working well but after that there was a pretty smooth mic change and they continued playing, very professional for a punk band … could be suss haha
Blowhole play a new song during their 30-minute set, which seemed well received by the crowd. The drummer had trouble hearing anything on stage at one-point but it didn’t hurt the crowd’s energy. My favourite part was when someone in the crowd yelled out “play … cause it’s a good song” and the band played the request.
The Clinch
The next band on stage were The Clinch it was around 8:50pm so changeover was the usual twenty minutes but a quick check of the mic levels made it feel a bit longer. You could notice a few mistakes, like Steve coming in with the vocals a little early in one song but as usual The Clinch put on a great show with a mix of songs from their 2018 debut album “Our Path Is One” and the 2020 follow up “Basecamp”.
The Half Pints
At 9:40pm Geelong’s home brewed drunk punx The Half Pints took the stage. We had found out the day before that Glen & the Peanut Butter Men had to pull out. I was excited cause this is the first time I’ve seen them live and the crowd was more excited than me, maybe they’ve seen them before, The Half Pints had a fanbase within the crowd and were giving them their all. I really liked “I Hate You” which is a kick ass song about some cunt that stole a microphone and ripped some punk off another highlight was when Dik Idea got up on stage and started singing along to a song.
GGF
Melbourne iconic street punks GGF took the stage at 10:30pm appearing for the first time in over 20 years. During their 30-minute set I watched the crowd become a bit of a pushy moshpit and members of other bands get on stage to sing along.
No Idea
The headline act, No Idea took the stage around 11:20pm playing their first show in over 5 years. It felt like two different sets as Carl, Dik and Rik took the stage playing some songs then Rik jumped off stage and former members Roger and Alex jumped up and performed a few songs with Carl and Dik. All up it was about 45-minutes of full party mode drunk punks screaming along, moshing on the spot, pulling out their phones to get some video or photos and climbing on stage to sing along with the band. I really think the event description summed up No Idea best as long-time custodians of the Melbourne punk scene but they are my favourite band so I could just be having a fanboy moment.
Before I left, I managed to get my cd copy of World Against Reason signed by Carl, Dik & Rik
I sat out in the beer garden after the show, it was mainly the punk crowd and I could hear Bad Religion playing in the background through the speakers. I’m thinking I should come back to The Bendigo Hotel soon because I’ve had a great time amongst a friendly people, and I didn’t feel out of place here.
*You can find a bunch more photos and videos by clicking the credit links.
Photo Credit: Punktoria
Video Credit: https://www.youtube.com/@punkondvd
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