REVIEW BY: ALEC SMART

RedHook, the dynamic female-fronted four-piece, headlined a bill of four bands at the Oxford Art Factory (OAF) in Darlinghurst, Sydney, as part of their ‘Bring Ya Mates’ national tour.

Main support The Dead Love accompanied them for the Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Perth shows, however, Down For Love had to drop out of the Sydney and Perth gigs for personal reasons. Substitutes Bellwether and Capitol Offence were brought in as crowd-warmers in Sydney.

The highlight of the energetic and highly entertaining Sydney concert was undoubtedly a finale featuring most of the tour’s musicians crowding the stage to cover AC/DC’s It’s a Long Way to the Top (if ya wanna Rock ‘n’ Roll).

During this raucous affair, the audience engaged in a mass pillow fight, pummelling each other and the performers as crowd-surfers ricocheted across a flailing sea of hands.

Earlier, openers Capitol Affair kick-started the gig with their pop-rock hybrid. Despite the American spelling of their name, they’re not to be confused with the USA band Capitol Offence (notable for its bassist Mike Huckabee, the former Governor of Arkansas and 2008 Republican presidential candidate).

This 2018-formed Sydney quartet have a few singles under their belt, including Medicate and It’s Too Late and in February 2022 the band released an unusual choice of cover with Justin Bieber’s Hold On.

Onstage they were confident and tight, but in this reviewer’s opinion need a lot more live experience before they can demand - and keep - a crowd’s attention.

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Bellwether – meaning a ‘leader of trends’ - cranked the tempo up significantly, with the audience responding positively. Most of the crowd were familiar with them from dynamic live shows, their 8 April-released EP Impermanence, several music videos, and their debut single, Shortsighted. The latter has been streamed over 10,000 times on Spotify alone since its August 2021 release.

The five-piece feature a lively lead guitarist who’s very nimble on his feet, great tunes and a commanding presence. However, the singer admitted he was puffed-out after the first two songs – that lad needs a bit of work-out time down the gym to build up his stamina!

Aussie music website Wall Of Sound recently listed Bellwether and tonight’s other support, The Dead Love, among the Top 20 Australian pop-punk bands to watch in 2022.

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The Dead Love, a grungey three-piece from Sydney, admitted they’d not played live in their hometown for two years, thanks to Covid lockdowns, time abroad touring UK and, of course, a primary support slot on the RedHook national tour.

Nevertheless, they ignited the audience, their presence launching stage-divers and crowd-surfers aplenty as the tempo went up several more notches and fans sang along to familiar tunes.

The crowd response was so genuine it was difficult at first to see whether RedHook would be able to take the mantle and make the stage their own in The Dead Love’s tsunamic wake.

Unlike many in the so-called ‘pop punk’ genre that prefer singing about personal issues, thanks to the Emo-influenced template set in the 1990s, The Dead Love have opinions about worldly affairs and domestic politics and they don’t shy away from expressing them.

With two albums under their belt - 2016's debut So Whatever and 2019’s The Extinction of Unicorns – plus several singles, including two 2022 releases, Roses and Bones, the band have matured into a powerful live act with articulate lyrics.

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RedHook are a force to be reckoned with on stage while their multi-faceted music is diverse and difficult to pigeonhole. Featuring the songwriting duo Emmy Mack (vocals) and Craig Wilkinson (guitar, saxophone) they combine elements of metal, punk, electronica, hip-hop and pop with occasional saxophone solos and trance-like synthesiser in between grungey guitars.

And flame-haired singer Emmy Mack is a firecracker fizzing with energy and enigmatic allure.

As they ascended the stage at the OAF they launched into Only Bones (from July 2019), followed by latest single, Low Budget Horror, which references famous splatter-gore movies, then Cure 4 Psycho.

The lyrics of Low Budget Horror continue the theme set in their debut six-track EP, Bad Decisions, (upon which Cure 4 Psycho appeared). They subvert the ‘psycho ex-girlfriend’ cliché to feature a woman who’s bounced back from domestic violence to reclaim her space in the world and “raise a middle finger to her would-be-killer.” The EP is dedicated to all survivors of abusive relationships.

Mid-set, prior to performing their new single Jabberwocky, (premiered 16 May on Triple J Radio) the band took a recess while Emmy carefully explained the inspiration for the lyrics.

Perhaps ‘inspiration’ is not the correct description for a soul-destroying ordeal that humiliated her – one that degrades all women.

Emmy revealed that whilst the band was on tour in Europe, on a busy schedule playing concerts to new fans, she was sexually assaulted.

In an online interview (see here on YouTube), Emmy goes into detail about her traumatic experience and how it shaped the song.

“It was based on a really messed-up experienced I had back in 2019 [during] RedHook’s first overseas tour. On the one hand I was having the time of my life, all my dreams were coming true, we were playing our music in front of thousands of people on the other side of the world – incredible.”

However, during a night off in Germany, when the band were returning to their accommodation after an evening celebrating, she became separated. During a trip to a public restroom, a man suddenly barged into her cubicle and sexually assaulted her.

“I didn’t really have time to process it…,” she continues. “The next day we had to pack up the van and drive to another country to play a show... What I did to get through it and not let myself go to pieces was convince myself it was magic and didn’t exist.

“That’s where the whole concept of the Jabberwocky came in. Just like Alice in that movie [Alice in Wonderland], that’s how I vanquished that demon in my mind….

“It’s an apt metaphor for trauma as well.. the way the monster comes out of nowhere at random times to terrify Alice when she least expects it.”

Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a dragon-like monster called a Jabberwock. The verse, which includes many made-up words (some of which have become regular terms in English, like ‘chortle’ and ‘burble’), was included in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

At the OAF, the band continued with a few more of their more popular songs, which collectively have been ‘streamed’ over a million times online, before summoning the support bands onstage.

Then began a rowdy rendition of Bad Decisions, RedHook’s best-known composition, while guitarist Chris brought out his saxophone and traded a few jazz scales with a trumpeter and a baritone saxophonist.

The song, which consists of metallic guitar riffs, a mid-section with rapped lyrics, and a very catchy singalong chorus, was originally launched with a hilarious music video featuring the protagonist making questionable life choices. These included waking up in bed with two men, getting a bad tattoo, and falling asleep while sunbathing to reawaken scarlet from sunburn.

The Bad Decisions video also featured a massive pillow fight, which explains why Emmy suddenly handed out pillows to the OAF audience, which, when the music started, immediately began pummelling each other. This continued during the next song, the aforementioned AC/DC cover.

Chris then took over lead vocals for the encore as Emmy retreated backstage and closed the night with spirited audience singalong covers of Sum 41’s Still Waiting and Linkin Park’s One Step Closer.

The pillows, meanwhile, inevitably shredded, however, luckily for the OAF venue staff, they weren’t feather-filled, like the ones in the music video, but stuffed with synthetic material, or they would have faced an awful mess to clean up.

RedHook will be main support for In Heart’s Wake’s national tour throughout August – October 2022. Meanwhile, their Bad Decisions debut EP has been nominated for Best Punk Album at the 2022 Australian Independent Record Labels Association Awards.