Photos & Review By: Monika Oberscheven-Smith

It has been a while since I stepped inside The Cambridge Hotel in Newcastle. I missed the place! Tonight was about getting to feast on the goodness of Voiid, Loser and Bugs; and feast we did!

Voiid jumped on the stage to an enthusiastic crowd that was packed on the barrier for the first set of the night. The Meanjin/Brisbane-based band had everyone eating from the palm of their bands. I kind of felt like I was back in the 90s listening to some dank and delicious grungy vibes spilling from out of the speakers. Anji Greenwood’s eyes rolling back in her head like an angsty teens shrugging off some crap that was said to her as she rasped her killer vocals into the mic and soaking up the interactive crowd in front of her. The band worked well together pulling through a clean (but diiirrrrtyyy) set but also fed a lot from each other which rounded out the whole thing perfectly.

"I forget what its like to play a show and stuff. We haven’t been to Newcastle for like 2 or 3 years" said Greenwood to a roaring response from the punters.

The Loser line-up has changed a little bit recently. So now they have changed into a three piece which has done no damage or made no negative changes to the line up at all. The smile on Craig Selak’s face lit up the room and you could tell how excited he was to be back up on the stage doing his thing with the highest energy burst from the night. Selak informed us they drove all the way from Melbourne to Newcastle that day, unfortunately Tim Maxwell does not drive which meant he took over as the DJ to swing between tracks and podcasts to keep Selak’s mind active and assist with the concentration from the 12hr ish drive! Loser sounded amazingly polished like they never took a covid break, and the crowd felt it. They were bouncing all around for the whole show feeding of the Loser boys and they all were singing the lyrics back to them. "Thank you very a lot. We are Loser and our job tonight is to warm you up for Bugs! Are you warm yet. I think you’re lukewarm". People were drumming along on tables, cheering and really getting into it all.

It’s not often you see a band live and forget that you’re supposed to be working. What I mean by this was I so distracted by the sheer brilliance of Bugs live I got so into the show I forgot to take notes after the first 3 songs and joined the moshing crowd getting drenched in sweat and getting swept up in the moment. The crowd was well and truly packed in for Bugs, a lot of people were covered in their merch looking pretty damn good. You could tell that this is the moment that everyone was waiting for and that everyone had missed seeing these Brisbane lads to much. Everyone looked like they were covered in sweat (which used to be gross but now I guess we all missed it, maybe even just a little?). We stood back and watched the crowd bouncing around together as one big mega mosh. The whole set was fun, perfect and we left in need of a massive feed from dispensing all of our energy and happiness into the night.