with Alice Worley [alice.worley@outlook.com]

Hey y’all! How’s the season treating you? Kindly, I hope.

The summer of 2024 brought me a viewing of legendary punks OFF!. Fantastic. Truth be told, I had plans to bail halfway through their set cos it was getting pretty late for a Wednesday night (sorry, I’m in my 30s now and a dedicated 9-to-5-er). But I just couldn’t leave. I was completely invested. Plus, I wanted to hear more conspiracy theories about the CIA and free LSD in the stage banter. Or was that a song? I don’t even know. It must’ve been, at minimum, a 30-song set. It was nuts!

Keith Morris is still packing that powerful voice from his Black Flag and Circle Jerk days, and he was SO in his performance. Miming a shotgun on the drum hits and throwing invisible drugs to the crowd, I couldn’t help but wonder – Am I the only one who has no idea what the hell is going on?

Now, if all that talk of high-spirited gig-ery has got you in the mood to get along to a show yourselves, I’ve got some wicked recommendations for Feb and March.

Best Friends

The most wholesome of wholesome shows – Best Friends @ The Baso– kicked February off with a line-up of wonderfully talented and big-hearted musicians. We’ve got Parrots With Piercings, Nelly Nova, Stella Eve, Loose Surface, and The Dizzy Ducks.

This will be a magical celebration of extraordinary talent, and I’m anticipating I’ll be front and centre the whole night, smiling like a baby with a set of keys jingling in its face.

Saturday, 3 February is the date to remember, circle in the calendar, set a phone reminder. Make this gig your reward for getting through another week.

You deserve it!

Private Function

Terrifying but beautiful punk powerhouses Private Function will be gracing us with shrieks and shenanigans on Friday, 8 March at The Baso.

From climbing surrounding scaffolding to crowd surfing in lifeboats to stabbing their guitars with steak knives, I could not begin to tell you what madness lies in store for this show. You just have to show up and find out.

Don’t tell me you’re not intrigued.

But high-functioning ‘Function shenanigans are not all. They’ll be joined on stage by their touring support, Tee Vee Repairman, with hometown backing by locals Box Dye. So, there are two bands to warm you up before all hell breaks loose. Get keen! Tix are $32.20 via Oztix.

CBR GRRRLS to The Front

CBR GRRRLS to The Front is back for 2024! On International Women’s Day, you can pop along and raise some money for the worthy cause that is Girls Rock Canberra camp.

And it’ll be well worth your time for a line-up like this.

We’ve got the face-melting, spine-tingling Cherish (Gadigal), locals Bad Lunar and Lily Begbie, and to top it all off, the headlining act is the Ngunnawal born, Naarm residing drum roll Moaning Lisa! PLUS you get a DJ set from the angelic Sophie Edwards.

I mean, what’s not to love here?

CBR GRRRLS to The Front is popping off on Saturday, 9 March at The Baso; online tickets are cheaper than the door, so get on that pre-sale train! Get ’em here.

Dirt Nap

To wrap up, I wanted to give Dirt Nap a special shout-out as well as the heartiest of hearty congratulations on playing their first show recently.

Y’all absolutely crushed it, and the whole crowd (myself very much included) had such a blast watching you.

I simply cannot wait to see what you do next, and I’m so keen to crank your tunes in my little Mazda hatchback one day.

And with that happy thought, I’m off!