A large room, nestled out in the western suburbs of Sydney, occasionally used for live events, but not often enough, every time I’ve caught a show at the Blacktown RSL the crowds have been extremely healthy, and tonight was no exception a strong lineup kicking off with semi-local lads Unpaid Debt.

Unpaid Debt been doing their thing for a number of years with a healthy fanbase out west, with their fair share of lineup changes over the years (like headliners Frenzal Rhomb, only contain one original member) but as they took to the stage tonight looked like they were settled right into doing exactly what they wanted to do. Rock the crowd. It took the punters a few songs to get a wriggle on as they all made their way towards the front, they blasted out their rock/punk anthemic tracks to set the mood for the bands to follow. The energy lifted towards the end of the their set as they busted out one of their token old tracks ‘I’m So Happy I Could Shit’ which was quickly followed on by the sets highlight, a newer numbers ‘Verity’ which really had the crowd at a peak. A perfomance which had the punk rock of Rancid combined with the rock’n’roll of The Living End and left the crowd a satisfied bunch as they prepared for The Bouncing Souls.

No strangers to Australian soil, The Bouncing Souls have always been a favourite amongst the local punk fans, after perhaps ironing off some jetlag on the night before’s show, they came out all guns firing with a great set of mixed old and new tracks which instantly had the crowd packed in up front and getting right into it. On previous tours vocalist Greg Attonito had his own little way about him that didn’t see him light up like a usual frontman, tonight though, it was like someone gave him a grenade with the pin pulled. He really took to the stage the way all good frontman should, really fed off the crowds response and they pulled out a couple of suprise packets including a track from way back in 1995 ‘Argyle’, managing to bust into some ‘Hey Ya!’ mid song which made for an interesting transition as the crowd went from bouncing up and down, to swinging to the groove. Highlight of their set though was another older classic ‘East Coast F*ck You’ working in the crowd participation. Definitely catch these guys if you get the chance!

Frenzal Rhomb need no introduction and the reason the majority of the crowd was here tonight. Year after year the band has delivered in the live arena and tonight was to promote their new cd ‘For The Term Of Their Unnatural Lives’ which is a collection of their older material no longer available in original form, which meant some old classics were on the cards. This was the first time I’d seen the band with their latest addition Tom Crease on the bass, and he was quite the gun on the ol’ four string. The crowd were easily whipped into a frenzy with a setlist that would keep any fan happy, favourites like ‘Cones’, ‘Punch In The Face’, the very old ‘Roger Climpson’ and combined with the newer stuff like ‘Russell Crowe’s Band’, ‘Looking Good’ and the crowd favourite ‘Bucket Bong’ complete with female intro as per CD.

From start to finish the 600 strong crowd were lapping it up, there was hardly a soul (pardon the pun) leaving early or without a smile on their faces, a quality night’s entertainment. It’s been a while since I can safely say every band on the bill was pure entertainment, all suited each other to a tee and all bands had a great time with the usual “hey how good was the last band” comments going that bit further and actually sounding genuine. Unpaid Debt recognising the two other bands then Bouncing Souls giving UD props with “Hey, how about Unpaid Debt, they were better than us” then Frenzal singing the praises of both bands. Maybe it was that friendly Westie air, or the cheap RSL beers, but everyone seemed to be having a blast of a time.