Hello punk brethren, did you all follow my gig guide to a T last month? Of course you did.

Carb on Carb, holy crap, you two can do no wrong. And thank you so much for bringing Prizegiving with you across the Tasman Sea, they were so much fun to watch. For the love of god, bring them again! We all fell for them so hard, so please don’t break our hearts by keeping them in New Zealand for too long.

Skinpin’s last Australian show! What a sad and beautiful affair, playing at Crossroads with Sketch Method, Fight Milk and Needledick. Can I just talk about Needledick for a minute? The Fugazi-esque quartet are such a great band to watch. They lose themselves in their sets so completely; Duncan making fierce love to his guitar as Jasper rubs his shiny head so seductively and necks himself with the cord of his microphone. They blessed us with a couple of new numbers as well, thanks boys!

But Skinpin, you guys rock and on behalf of your Canberra fam, we wish you all the best in Europe.

I went for a little over half an hour to the Punk ‘N’ Rock show at the Basement but I just wasn’t vibing it. It was probably just me being overworked and exhausted, but all the patrons were a little too much at that gig. I rolled my eyes as one guy punched another guy square in the balls for a giggle, and as some random decided to aggressively flip me off I just said to myself, “I can’t get drunk enough to enjoy this”, and made my way home.

The Hard Aches played a sold-out show at Transit Bar with Muncie Girls, The Football Club and our own Moaning Lisa. As I walked in the get my stamp, I noticed several hardcore Hard Aches fans that were standing by the windows to watch in the freezing cold as they were unable to acquire tickets. It was a banger of a show and the positive energy from the crowd was infectious.

Mere Women kicked off their Big Skies tour at Transit Bar on the 22nd and oh my goodness I was blown away. Bought an EP, a shirt, a lapel pin, and stole a poster off the wall. I am in love with this band. I hope that if you saw them you too had previously read the article about them in the last issue because it gave me a supremely deep understanding and appreciation for the songs I was being enraptured by.

A couple of bands I’m keeping my eye on right this month are Dalmacia and Slagatha Christie. Dalmacia are so good that their Backstreet Boys cover actually had me singing along rather that throwing up. They seem to be booking lots of gigs so there are plenty of opportunities for you to catch them.

Slagatha Christie are just one of the most fun-loving bands I’ve ever watched. At the Bootlegs on the 19th, Kate played her Spongebob guitar with only four strings and, okay, it did sound pretty terrible, but she still managed to rock it and show us a great time because she just has such a great attitude. Their merch is also a collection of some of the most punk shirts ever; DIY as hell and I love it (I’m wearing one right now).

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