REGURGITATOR Invade The Tivoli!
w/ PARTY DOZEN + MONSTER ZUKO ONSOMB!

Written by: Tom Wilson
Photos by: Rashid AlKamraikhi >> SEE PHOTOS

We rock up to The Tivoli to hear some sad news that CRY CLUB are down with the sickness and will have to miss tonight’s fun, which will now be running with a slightly altered schedule. I imagine that the look on my face when MONSTER ZUKO ONSOMB! take to the stage was priceless.

Two figures wearing white yeti costumes take up sentry position at the back of the stage, standing perfectly still as the band emerge, four of them wearing matching tights, vests and cannibal bone necklaces. The guitarist opens with an acknowledgement of country, before they kick off a deafening wall of synths and beats, and the energy does not dip once in the next 45 minutes. There’s a bloke wearing fluorescent overalls, and a cameraman with his face painted gold silently gliding around the stage, capturing everything. Choreography, humour, smiles and boundless energy soon has the entire Tivoli dancing, and for the first band of the night, that is no small feat. At no stage in this performance did I ever figure out what in the Kentucky Fried Fuck I was watching, and I am all the happier for it.

How do you follow that? If you answered “With a two-piece featuring a drummer, a saxophonist and a mean selection of distortion pedals,” that’s oddly specific, and I think you cheated. PARTY DOZEN are both sonically remarkable and absolutely endearing. Twirling around onstage with a wireless saxophone, Kirsty Tickle alternates between playing and singing into the bell of her instrument, which creates an utterly unique vocal effect. Drummer Jonathan Boulet is no slouch himself, knocking out the best display of drumming I’ve seen since witnessing Lucius from COG at the Princess Theatre. In introducing Macca the Mutt, Kirsty tells us that Nick Cave won’t be joining them tonight, but fortunately it still sounds amazing. This is one of those great sets where, by the third song, you’re already planning on telling everyone you know about it. Choose life. Choose weird and amazing music. Chose white overalls. Choose PARTY DOZEN.

REGURGITATOR have endured for more than thirty years for one main reason. It’s not just because they genre-hop like a drunken rabbit, giving you a dozen completely different sounds each album. It’s because no matter what musical language they choose to speak, their ear for melody is immaculate. Every track of their massive setlist tonight is its own unique, completely distinct beast, and as they take the stage with keytar/guitarist Sarah Lim, the first beast of the night is ‘Invader’.

‘Track 1’ is a neck workout that Quan introduces by asking if we want to pogo like it’s 1993, and from there, he loses the guitar and steps forward with a massive smile on his face, because it’s time for a song about rimming. On ‘I Will Lick Your Arsehole’, Quan showcases some serious bars, and when bassist Ben Ely later takes to the mic for ‘Fat Cop’, it becomes clear that, somewhere else in the multiverse, they make a great living as rap stars.

One of the strongest tracks off of new album Invader, ‘Pest’ is a banger of the highest order, and Ben Ely asks the crowd if they want something faster and heavier. There is an affirmative roar. He asks if there are any hardcore punk fans in the house. People lose their minds. What song does he play? ‘Polyester Girl’. Bastard. After ‘Tsunami’, he lets us know that there will be a short interlude for a costume change. It is not, he repeats, the end of the show, which has apparently led to confusion earlier on the tour. After a storming ‘Kong Foo Sing’, they disappear backstage, and we wait in the darkness as ‘The Bastard Poem That Nobody Wanted’ off Invader plays over the P.A.. They re-emerge wearing awesome customised black-and-white tracksuits, and drop into Tu Plang classic ‘I Sucked A Lot of Cock to Get Where I Am’. Part profound, part profane: that’s the REGURGITATOR way. ‘Epic’ sees Quan rocking the mic again, and Sarah Lim steps in for Peaches on ‘This Is Not A Pop Song’. ‘I Wanna Be A Nudist’ is as hyperactive as ever, and after an epic ‘Blubber Boy’, there is only one thing left to do … jump straight back into the 80s with SIMPLE MINDS’ ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’. It’s a glorious end to a huge set.

It speaks volumes to REGURGITATOR’s catalogue that we can get a set of almost thirty songs and still whine that we didn’t hear favourites like ‘F.S.O.’, ‘Couldn’t Do It’, ‘I Piss Alone’ and ‘Everyday Formula’, but there will be time for that, because, based on the strength of tonight’s show, The Gurge aren’t going anywhere.

Photos by: Rashid AlKamraikhi
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THE SETLIST