Regurgitator @ Amplifier,Perth (3/09/11)

Mon 5th Sep, 2011 in Gig Reviews

As hundreds flooded in through the doors at Amplifier, Boys Boys Boys kicked off proceedings and band member Bridget Turner’s not-so-21st birthday party.

Yo Gabba Gabba meets Le Tigre in a crazy world of acid fuelled sex, where all the music is played by five of the hottest lads and lasses you’re ever likely to lay eyes on. They’d feel just at home on their own children’s television show, ie. Hi 5, with songs like Tiki Boom and Hula Hula or on a stage in any city in the world. The choreographed dance moves can either be passed off as tacky or as fun, depending on how cynical the punter is feeling on the night. This particular reviewer thinks it is more of the latter variety, helping the crowd getting right into the party spirit as they wait for their drug of choice to set in.

Disasteradio can either be taken or left. He’s a rather large man, sweating like he’d just run the City to Surf marathon, playing happy hardcore through his laptop and other various gadgets. While a lot of punters scratched their heads in confusion, wondering just what this Kiwi was all about, others got right into it, dancing their silly little heads off. Disasteradio has been playing the 2am slot at Melbourne’s most notorious, seediest of seedy bars; Pony, for several years now. Blending happy hardcore with the familiar sounds of 8-bit ( Sonic the Hedgehog to be more precise), Disasteradio comes up with his own style of sleazecore that will be happily at home in the dark corners of any bar in the world.

If Amplifier wasn’t sold out, it sure felt like it by the time Regurgitator took to the stage, with hardly any room to move or dance unless you wanted to invade the personal space of the person standing next to you. Not dancing (or more importantly, not being able to dance) to a band like Regurgitator is strange. It’s a bit like being in a straight jacket at a Zumba class. Uncomfortable and exhilarating. Armed to the teeth with their stellar new album Into the Night, founding members Quan Yeomans and Ben Ely together with their drummer Peter Kostic ran through a setlist full of crowd favourites from their seventeen year career, as well as new tracks that the punters had only just become acquainted with or were yet to hear. Highlights included Black Bugs, Track 1, Kong Foo Sing, I Like Your Old Stuff Better Than Your New Stuff, Blubber Boy, My Friend Robot and Polyester Girl.

It may have been years since we last saw Regurgitator on our turf but they always seem refreshing, without that eerie feeling of having seen it all before. While most people at the show could point to a milestone in their teen years and link it to a Regurgitator song, be that a first kiss or the first party they went to, each time one of those songs was played it almost felt like hearing it for the first time. Same goes for seeing them live. This could’ve been your first, sixth or twentieth time seeing them, it wouldn’t have mattered. Regurgitator have long held a reputation for putting on a sensational live show. Each show is played like its their first, no matter how far into the tour they are. They know that their job is to make people have a good time and tonight was no different.

As Regurgitator manouvered their way through the hoardes of people after their set, all wanting to high five their heroes after a job well done, everyone was cast out into the night with big grins on their faces having just been rocked by some of Australia’s (and New Zealand’s) best.