Review: Bec
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A Punkfest comes with certain expectations: tartan, Mohawks, numerous safety pins as various fixtures, mad dancing, and fast – no very fast – angry music. You wouldn’t expect sea shanties, pirate ditties, old Celtic songs or a “Yo ho ho and a bottle of fockin’ rum!” But that was the musical fare served up at the Punkfest at the Jubilee Hotel.
It’s hard to describe the music because it seems to be a bit of…well, everything. At different times, you can hear rockabilly, hillbilly, the aforementioned pirate, and folk, but sung at serious speed, maybe, three or four times as fast. And that’s what makes it punk. The bands don’t sing about your punk staples like anarchy, anti-establishment and violence and there’s no real fuck-offs or fuck-yous; they sing about old bushrangers, shearing and courting a |
girl in Belfast City. They don’t play your usual punk instruments – there are mandolins, fiddles, banjos, trombones, double bass, accordion, tin whistle, and even a lagerphone. They don’t dress like your typical punk bands – they wear ties with vests and your English working man’s cap; some look sea tug boat captains or your typical Aussie bushie.
Continue reading Live Review: Punkfest @ The Jubilee Hotel, Brisbane
“You’re going to a Kev Carmody tribute, eh?” Silence. “So, who’s Kev Carmody?” 
Few bands could be as innately suited to The Tivoli’s lush interiors as the sonically eclectic FourPlay String Quartet. Coaxed all the way to Brisbane to feature in the Deborah Conway-curated 2009 edition of the Queensland Music Festival, the fourtet of Sydneysiders grace the venue with an exquisite set worthy of a far-larger audience.
