Bad//Dreems @ Crowbar, Brisbane - 27/06/2015

Adelaide's Bad//Dreems inhabit a tantalizingly unique musical niche, where the raw and scuzzy vibes of the 'dolewave' Oz underground cross pollinate with the classic Oz pub rock sounds of yesteryear. A place where early Replacements and Hunters and Collectors are mutually compatible musical comrades...you can throw your arms around these bastards of young.

And tonight, at Crowbar, the lads step up and deliver a spanking set of future beer barn anthems, as part of their national tour to celebrate the release of cracking new track, 'Cuffed and Collared'. The boys live up to their workingman image, looking like the types to be found hanging out at the footie with a tinny and pie or mooching around the darker recesses of their local TAB. 

Pensive heart breaker, 'My Only Friend' is an early treat, a cigarette lighter in the air moment in a previous decade. 
Highlights from debut release "Badlands" abound, including the drivingly urgent, 'Hoping For' and the anthemic, 'Caroline', whipping the crowd into a beer sodden lather. Frontman and guitarist Ben Marwe scowls, grimaces and smacks his head and the crowd flail along with lubricated exuberance, delivering some aerodynamically impressive crowd surfing manouvres over the course of a set that rises in tempo and bite the further along it goes.

The band go out in a blaze with the epic, 'Tomorrow Mountain', leaving nothing in the fuel tank but the burnt our skeleton of a killer set of honest to goodness rock and roll. The upcoming debut record will indeed be something to look forward to, which means that the guys will be back in our neck of the woods again rather soon. My suggestion - get along!


By Anthony Gebhardt