As one would expect at a party, Bar 32 was decorated with streamers and ribbons and almost every punter had a party hat strapped to their head.
As it was Gangbusters 1st Birthday, Bar 32 was inhabited with a wide variety of punters that ranged from the Indie/Alternative crowd to the Metal/Hard rock crowd to the Pop/Electro dance mob. This alone created the most pleasant, easy-going vibe as it showed that every crowd from every genre of music could come together and celebrate an anniversary of the very music festival that have given them a kick-start in the Canberra music scene.
To get the party started were local country rock outfit Black Creek who have ingeniously blended a range of genres together including progressive rock, punk, indie and country. An easier way of describing their sound would be if Spiderbait met The White Stripes and decided to collaborate. Ironically Black Creek’s drummer has the same style and charisma as Meg White that if you closed your eyes it could very well be her playing the drums in the band!
To further add to the delight of the punters were fellow Canberra act From The South who blended together the sound and rhythm of Evermore and Youth Group and laced it with guitar solos much like the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They all shared the singing duties as all the guitarists all had their own mics and made their presence clearly evident up the front of the stage which in turn blocked the view of the drummer who must have been lonely up the back.
Continuing the all local line-up for the evening were popular upbeat soft rock band The Trivs who can be described as a mix between Van She and Birds of Tokyo with mild elements of the Foo Fighters. Due to the stuffy haze that was hanging around the stage area due to an energetic band and crowd over the duration of their set the drummer and bassist slowly stripped off the layers.
In their short time as a band The Trivs have made a standout impressive on the Canberra scene which was all the more evident by their performance on Thursday night. A lot of the punters recognised their songs and let loose and danced along to their songs.
One thing that dampened their set was the vocalist suppressing their band’s success and said “Stay around for Super Best Friends I promise you there a lot better than we are.” I don’t think that was necessary.
You guessed it up next were the long awaited favourites Super Best Friends. As you would expect from a notoric Canberra band there was a big crowd present for their set which felt overwhelming due to the size of Bar 32. Another factor that comes with their notoriety is a wild mosh pit which is ironically the same one that they attracted the last time they played at this venue. As hinted it seems that they attract a loyal legion of fans for their performances, hence why the crowd knew their songs so well that they were imitating their performance while they were playing. It was like the audience were performing for them!
Lead singer John Barrington said jokingly “It’s good to see some new faces here. It means that there are some people in Canberra that we haven’t played to.”
To conclude the evening were progressive rock favourites The Fighting League. Their music touches on a lot of genres including hard and progressive rock, pop and mild hints of dance. The lead singer has a reputation of performing shirtless and this performance was no exception and on cue on the second song he ripped it off. Once he took his off, a majority of the boys in the front row did followed suit to create a macho masculine infused performing space.
Finishing at a record time of 1:30 am Gangbusters had officially turned one! There were no speeches from Warwick but every band thanked him for all his hard work. We do too!
to listen to their music now on 
