17 February 2023 – Riverstage, Brisbane – review by Joe Harbour – pictures by Bec Harbour
The summer this year in Brisbane has been a bit relentless with heat and humidity and I was not looking forward to trekking down to the Riverstage in Brisbane. It’s Friday, I’m working a later shift, there are late night shoppers and office workers everywhere. I’m worried I may be late for the opener but Bec (our editor) happened to be driving by and I get lift in time to be able catch the opening act, ANTY!
I’m not familiar with ANTY! or their band, The Bennies, either. I had no idea what to expect from them.
So, what’s ANTY! about? They do a hybrid of rap-reggae with the usual sort of lyrics akin to this type of music. I enjoyed the show, because it wasn’t the played out Aussie skip-hop vibe I’m used to and the mash of reggae was very neat! They even did a cover of the Madness song ‘One Step Beyond!’ If you get a chance to see them play in a club I say go along, you’ll have a lot of fun.
Up next after a range of great music over the PA to help pass the time as stage hands set up, we had Bad Religion.
Bad Religion have been around for a very long time. So as to be expected, they pulled out a fairly solid set list of tracks covering most eras of their output. They opened with ‘Too Much to Ask’ followed by crowd favourite, ‘American Jesus’. Other tracks that made the show included ‘Flat Earth Society’, ‘No Control’, ‘I Wanna Conquer the World’ and ‘Generator’. Other highlights of their career spanning set were ‘LA is Burning’, ‘Skyscraper’, ‘Streets of America’ and ‘20th Century Digital Boy’.
It was a big set and up-tempo set for the most part and the crowd were into it with a steady stream of crowd surfers and a pit that went off. I was especially stoked to see Brian Baker play with them being a fan of his other work with Minor Threat and Dag Nasty.
Closing the night was Social Distortion. They are also long time LA punk rock staples who write timeless classics we can all relate to, I especially like the Greaser/Americana vibe with working class lyrics over ballsy guitar. Tonight, Mike Ness sported a Bugsy Siegel mugshot Shirt with a flat cap to complete the look. I’m not gonna lie but these guys are one of my favourite bands and I was really excited to catch them live!
They opened with ‘So Far Away’ and flew into ‘Bad Luck’, ‘Reach for the Sky’ and ‘Born to Follow’. Then right back to where it started with the title track from their first LP, ‘Mommy’s Little Monster’, and jumped forward in their catalogue with ‘Sick Boys’. They then did a really cool cover of ‘Wicked Game’ by Chris Isaac that surprised some in the crowd (it’s not surprising to fans as they have been doing that cover for years), and then the classic, ‘Ball and Chain’.
We then got a taste of a couple new tracks one was called ‘Over to You’ and the other called ‘Tonight’. The new songs sound great and we should expect the new stuff to be released in the future.
To round out the night (no encores – Riverstage has very strict curfew which they pointed out during the set) they played ‘Story of My Life’, ‘Born to Kill’ and lastly ‘Ring of Fire’ by Johnny Cash.
So then, what did I think? I loved it, I had fun and got to see some very cool music, I think I would like to see these bands in a smaller, more intimate venue next time and have that real ‘punk club vibe’.
