There’s a first for everything and for me it was to see a band perform at Billboards Nightclub in the heart of Melbourne. But not only that, it was a first for me to see these lads from Venice, LA representing their traditional Dogtown skate style for their Australian audience.


Much to my surprise, I have recently noticed that Billboards’ extensive list of coming gigs has continued to in increase. On this particular night, it was old school ‘cyco punkers’ Suicidal Tendencies’ turn to lash out their powerful, speedy riffs. Since their last tour Down Under in 2000, they still seemed to have pulled a decent crowd (although I was quite amazed to notice an appearance of many more young punters as opposed to the old).
Kicking the night off was support act Bear Trap who weren’t too shabby, although the quality of the sound dwelled to a difficult level of distortion.


Come 10:15pm the boys from LA were scheduled to appear but there seemed to have been a slight delay. This made me a little concerned as I didn’t want to feel as though I had been cursed for being a first time onlooker. However, shortly after the technical issues had passed, the ‘ST’ chants from the crowd became louder and before you knew it, they exploded onto the stage. It was the first I had heard of the newest band members, brothers Steve and Ron Brummer on bass and drums and Dean Pleasants who was tearing and sharing away at the axe with Mike Clark. Because of the amount of band members that ST have had over the years, it’s astonishing that they are still playing hard and strong to this date. And for those who may not be familair, ST have actually been punching out their routine since 1982. That’s quite an age for a band of our times. I guess you could consider them as being the pioneers in their genre.

ST opened their set with ‘You Can’t Bring Me Down’ which was played back to back with one of my favourites, ‘War Inside My Head’. As the punters became overtly enthused, crowd surfing and stage diving became a must. The entertainment continued after a couple of the younger tackers almost KO’d themselves over the pit. At this stage, I have to point out two impressive performances – frontman Mikey Muir’s philosophical concepts on life and his ability to share these concepts amongst the crowd, and secondly, his everlasting energy and frantic rampaging up and down the stage, primarily of Cyco Mike Muir, which continued throughout the set.

As more of the classics like ‘Cyco’, ‘Subliminal’ and ‘Possessed To Skate’ ripped out, there was also a taste of one of their new tracks (to be released on their latest album in late 2007). Soon after, there was further discussion from Muir.


Apparently, it was time for something a little more easy, or so Mikey would call it. ‘I Saw Your Mommy’ really had the punters banging their heads and bodies continued to be thrown around and over the barriers. A slight hint of the goose bumps had hit me when Pleasants pulled out the old guitar solo on a few of the tracks. I wasn’t at all disappointed with the sound quality – it was loud, thunderous, and it had it all!


As the night came to an end, there were once again further interactions between Mikey and his audience but more so on the topics of discussion encompassing inner strength and the capabilities of being able to proceed with life, its challenges and to keep positivity afloat. Rollin’ into an end was one more of many of the ST’s rippers – ‘Suicidal’. Mikey and band encouraged the crowd to participate onstage in singing the Suicidal anthem for a closure of the night and they couldn’t have been more motivated. As there was no encore, I still feel it was a fantastic performance from the ST boys with their compelling set which clocked at a touch over an hour.