7 February 2025 – The Princess Theatre, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Luke Petty
For fans of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and all things 2000s alternative rock, last night was a big night at The Princess Theatre, as California legends Alien Ant Farm made their long overdue return to Australia. The band’s first shows in the country since Big Day Out 2002 were bolstered with the additional of another band long overdue for a tour, Drowning Pool, who haven’t been back to Australia since 2016.
Kicking off festivities for the evening was Melbourne thrash icons Frankenbok. This tour is the first tour since the announcement of the return of the bands original singer, Adam Glynn, who created the band back in 1997 with guitarist Aaron Butler. The set was a tight 30, as they blasted through tunes, with a tonne of banter with the crowd. As much as Glynn was smashing jokes out, the crowd were serving them back. The set featured every song from the bands new EP, IRREPRESSIBLE, which dropped last Friday, and opened the show with ‘Monk’. A nice, fun, thirty minutes.
Frankenbok – Princess Theatre – photos by Luke Petty
Up next were a band who have been long overdue for a return to Australia. Drowning Pool’s drummer Mike Luce came out, and did a mini drum solo intro, as bassist Steve and guitarist CJ walked out to a massive ovation. Lead singer Ryan McCombs then walked out, as ‘Sinner’ played, and the crowd started to go ballistic from the jump. ‘Enemy’ was up next, and McCombs asked the crowd to step up, as ‘Step Up’ played, and a massive pit opened right in front of me. ‘One Finger and a Fist’ and ‘37 Stitches’ had the crowd singing along, before the band ripped out their cover of ‘Rebel Yell’, which was sick.
Drowning Pool – Princess Theatre – photos by Luke Petty
Ryan did a brief speech about how divided the world is, and hopes the next song can be a rallying cry to unite everyone, as ‘Feel Like I Do’ played. When I sat down with Ryan last year to discuss the band’s return to Australia, I mentioned how much I love that song, so getting to hear it for the first time was so awesome. The back end of the set was mental, with ‘Sermon’ and ‘Tear’ away next, where Ryan had nothing but phone lights illuminating the band in a cool moment, followed by a snippet of a cover of ‘Cowboys from Hell’ by Pantera, and ‘Bodies’ to close out the set. The crowd was electric for every song in this set. Fingers crossed that’s a sign that they need to come back out for a full headline tour, ASAP.
Drowning Pool – Princess Theatre – photos by Luke Petty
Capping the night off were Alien Ant Farm, who’s opening part of the set I missed due to being in the beer garden in a deep conversation, that I didn’t even know the band were on stage. I love the Princess, but the venue needs something to signal when bands are back on. So unfortunately I missed ‘Courage’, but I did catch ‘Wish’, and ‘Flesh and Bone’. Opening the set with nostalgia hit the right spot, as everyone was singing along and having a blast. ‘The Wrong Things’ from the bands new record mANTras played next, and I think outside of ‘Fade’ and ‘Last dAntz’, it’s definitely my favourite song. The intro riff to ‘Movies’ for the crowd moving again, as another massive sing along happened. Dryden talked about music videos and MTV, before ‘These Days’ kicked off, again to more massive sing alongs.
Alien Ant Farm – Princess Theatre – photos by Luke Petty
‘Last dAntz’ was up next, which is such a fantastic song. The new AAF record has some incredible tunes on it, and ‘dAntz’ is one of them. The chorus is so catchy and fun to sing along to, and so hearing it live was awesome. More nostalgia kicked in with tracks like ‘Attitude’, and ‘Stranded’, before ‘Glow’ kicked off. ‘Glow’ wasn’t a song I was expecting to hear, but I should have. It’s too good of a tune to leave off a set like this. ‘What Am I Doing’ and ‘Storms Over’ from mANTras helped wind down the main set, as set closer ‘Sticks and Stones’ went off huge.
Alien Ant Farm – Princess Theatre – photos by Luke Petty
After the obligatory encore tease, the band returned and teased one more song, then gave us two, playing ‘What I Feel Is Mine’, before the stage went pitch black, as a clip of an interview played, of Michael Jackson talking about his love for the bands cover of ‘Smooth Criminal’. The show closed with ‘Smooth Criminal’, closing off the first night of tour off with a solid bang.
