10 September 2026 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words and pictures by Bec Harbour
It has been around 30 years since the release of Ash’s album 1977 back when they were guaranteed real teenagers (or thereabouts). This album spawned 5 singles and built them up as a noise-pop force to be reckoned with.
I arrived at the Tivoli and there was a line of sorts out the front and quite an assortment of Ash vintage shirts on punters. There was the expected older crew but a good showing of younger people as well.
First up tonight was Northern Lights, an Ipswich band that formed in approximately 2017, beginning as a solo project fronted by Dustin Schmidt – after a short hiatus, they came back with a fully fleshed out band and they have an album on the way. They had a great showing of support from the Brisbane crowd, particularly the Silverchair cover. There are grunge, rock and a bit of punk influences there and it seems after their hiatus, things are going full steam ahead.
Northern Lights – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
After a stage change over, the lights dimmed, the music on the PA quietened and the crowd whooped and cheered as Tim Wheeler, Mark Hamilton and Rick McMurray came onstage. Without much ceremony (we all knew WHY we were here) they kicked off the 1977 set with ‘Lose Control’.
And from there we powered on with an audience that knew the words, sang the choruses back to the band with the biggest sing-alongs reserved for the singles ‘Girl From Mars’, ‘Kung Fu’ (with a quip from Wheeler about membership to the Jackie Chan Fan Club) and ‘O Yeah’.
Ash – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
About halfway through the set Wheeler stopped to muse about the first time they came to Australia, it was for 1977 and they also played the 1996 LIVID festival with Weezer, Garbage and Everclear (with some wag in the front after Garbage was mentioned yelling out that they “were garbage”).
We were now on the back end of the 1977 album and after going through “the softest song on the album” which I believe was ‘Lost In You’ we got to the end of the album with ‘Darkside Lightside’. Wheeler called a brief intermission and they’d be back with some more.
Ash – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
This gave me time to reflect just how short and sharp the tracks are on 1977 with how quickly that set went. It wasn’t long and they were back, kicking off set 2 with ‘Zarathustra’, ‘Fun People’ and ‘Ad Astra’ off their 2025 release Ad Astra. With a couple of songs from 2001’s Free All Angels and a rollicking cover of Harry Belafonte’s “Jump In The Line’ the night was over.
Ash as a band have gone through some interesting ups and downs, what these ups and downs have never affected is just how tight musically they are – there did not seem to be a note missed (if there was no one noticed) and while occupying their own spaces on the stage, they interacted like a well oiled machine that makes wonderful noise-pop.
Ash – Tivoli – photos by Bec Harbour
There is the just the barest minimum of crowd interaction but it’s enough. Wheeler, Hamilton and McMurray all seemed stoked to be here and reconnecting with audiences through an album that will always be their “lightning caught in a bottle” moment.
