4 May 2023 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Justin Gittins
After reuniting at the Good Things festival last year to play their debut album United Paper People in full, Melbourne based alt pop punk kings Kisschasy returned to the stage with their first headline tour of Australia in almost eight years. I managed to catch Kisschasy on the last of those shows at the Brisbane Good Things festival, and I gotta say, I don’t think Kisschasy expected the turn out or reception they received. So naturally, a headline tour made sense. There definitely seems to be a nostalgia in my generation for bands of our youth, probably more than any other generation out there. So having a band that was at the forefront of the scene, at a time in our lives where we can truly show our appreciation to them, feels incredible.
The show tonight had two supporting artists. The first was singer/songwriter Bec Stevens. Touring off the back of her debut record, Big Worry, Bec’s set was both at times absolutely hilarious, and heart wrenching. Cracking jokes most of the set about having some songs Bec and her supporting band had never played before, we were taken on a journey of some incredible songs, most of which I unfortunately don’t know the names of. We were assured that most of the songs were on the record, so I’m going to have to do a deeper dive into the album at some point soon, because Bec’s performance definitely turned me into a fan. The one specific heart wrenching moment of the show though, was the mention of her friend James, who tragically lost his life to suicide a few years ago. James wrote a song, and Bec has covered it for the album. The most touching moment of the night though, was that James’s vocals were layered in at the end of the song, allowing Bec to sing the song with her late friend. Absolutely beautiful moment.
Next up was the Adelaide based self-professed “two-piece puzzle”, Towns. The band’s music reminds me a lot of that late 90s/early 00s pop punk sound, with enough Australian rock and pop influences in it to make you think you’re listening to a Blink 182 version of Kisschasy. And the Blink comparison doesn’t stop there. The banter between lead singer Aston Valladares and drummer Daniel Steinert was probably some of the funniest stuff I’ve seen at a live show in a while. And the music is great too. A lot of head boppers. And the crowd was super into it too. A definite highlight of the set was Aston talking about how they wrote a song today, and were going to premiere it to the Brisbane audience, and if anyone knew the words they were encouraged to sing along. The song was ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth. Like I said, absolute lunatics live, in the best way.
After a short change over, Kisschasy walked on stage to a thunderous ovation. The venue wasn’t quite sold out, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell. The noise coming from the crowd was massive. They immediately started the set with two songs off my favourite Kisschasy album Hymns for the Nonbeliever, with ‘The Perfect Way to Meet’, followed by ‘Strings and Drums’. The show went for a while with no talk from the band, with the band just pumping hit after hit. Highlights from the first half of the show included ‘Face Without a Name’, ‘United Paper People’, and ‘Generation Why’.
While the band played their share of hits, they also dove deep into the bag of deep cuts for the long time faithful, pulling out ‘Darkside’, which was something I did not expect at all. It didn’t feel like a lot of people knew the song from where I was, but those that knew it, sang it loud. The final three songs of the main set, had lead singer Darren Cordeux stand on stage alone, within himself, his guitar, and the crowd. Those three songs, were ‘The Shake’, ‘Dinosaur’, and ‘Black Dress’. ‘Black Dress’ had the rest of the band come back on for the last maybe half, but hearing that single guitar line and nothing else, to the full band coming in was awesome. After a brief break, the band came back and played their three biggest songs as their encore, with ‘Do-Do’s & Whoa-Oh’s’, ‘Spray-On Pants’ (weirdly enough, I never realized this was a Kisschasy song until tonight), and my favourite song, ‘Opinions Won’t Keep You Warm at Night’.
The night was packed with nostalgia for a simpler time. A time for me, where high school was ending, and my life was just starting to begin. Being able to revisit those feelings, nearly 20 years on, made for an awesome night from Kisschasy, and an emotional brilliant night for me personally.
