Newtown 12/7/26

King Street Crawl is a live music game-changer that happens once a year in Newtown, and now in neighbouring suburbs. It’s been running for 10 years. If you want more info than that, Google it. It’s worth going and doing some research. This wasn’t my first KSC, won’t be my last. This year I did not play it the way I have in previous years. This year I actually just time-tabled my time so it was all taken by bands I knew some of their catalogue and wanted to see. Which, to be fair, is not the best way to play KSC. Exploring bands, genres, and venues you’ve never heard of or seen is actually the way to do it. But I did see some bands I love and had a great time.

Selve I hadn’t seen before, but have listened to their music and followed them on Insta for a bit. It was good to watch the energy of their tunes live. The majority of the band members wore jumpsuits that made them look like they worked at NASA. This has been a look I have seen before. Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice also sports this look, pretty sure I have seen Media Puzzle sport it too. Six band members, with some great harmonies from many. Played my fave track of theirs, “Natural Born Killa”, so won points for that. They were an excellent way to start my crawl.

Mini Skirt I have seen before, and will see every time I have the opportunity. Sometimes when I see a band, it is very easy to articulate what I like about them, “they are great musicians”, “They have awesome energy” etc etc. With Mini Skirt, I cannot do that. Not because they aren’t those things, but because they are more than that. They are everything you want from an Aussie garage rock band, and more. Jacob spent a good deal of time stomping and bouncing around the stage, physically punching out the vocals, and you could just tell he meant every word he said. Cam’s guitar started making a low feedback noise for the last couple of songs, but with KSC having such a quick turnaround of bands, there wasn’t much to do but just keep playing, and to be honest, it kind of added to the raw nature of the band anyway, and once he was playing, the average punter like myself couldn’t notice. Again, given the very nature of KSC’s get on, play, get off, they just sounded super tight, and the crowd loved it. Halfway through the set, there were people crowd surfing, a large mosh had formed, and we even had some stage divers. Not bad for 4pm on a Sunday.

Shogun has earned his cult-like status in the Australian music scene. His work is prolific, and I have found it actually doesn’t matter which one of his many acts you are witnessing; you will be watching him. Not to say the Anteena are all great musos. They are; Shogun just has a stage presence that draws you in. This set was no exception. The crowd was divided by people there to watch and witness Sydney musical royalty (excuse the pun), and those who wanted to smash it out in a mosh, and unfortunately, those who had no idea what they were witnessing and chatted…. yes, that’s right, chatted during the set…. I feel like this was felt from the stage too. Shogun’s voice was stretched. He even said he was done at one point, but still gave us two more songs, for which I was very grateful.

Another band I have listened to, but I haven’t got around to seeing yet. The crowd swapped around a bit, and a very tall man and his very tall friend stood in front of me, so technically I still haven’t “seen” them. But I did get to witness their funky sound live, which was great. From the little glimpses of the stage I got, the show seemed like the band was having fun. The crowd definitely was. So I’d say it was a successful venture. Next time I embark on an adventure to see them, I may get myself somewhere towards the front or somewhere high.

Now this band I have seen lots, and plan to whenever they play. Despite it being fronted by an Australian living musical legend, who probably should be bronzed, he is never the highlight when I see this band. Lauren Hammel is insane, and this gig was no exception. The drumming for this band always makes me think they purposely write music just to make her work, hard. Which is what happens. But the way it happens. She was jumping out of her seat, then head-down smashing cymbals, thrashing about, but always also keeping a very close eye on her bandmates. She seemed to be having trouble hearing the rest of the band, but her playing certainly didn’t show it. Fiona was, of course, ever cool. As we all know, female bass players will always have a special place in my heart. Erica was, as usual, spritely, and when she and Fi sang, if I hadn’t been so determined not to miss a minute of Lauren Hammel drumming, I would have just closed my eyes and blissed out. Obviously Gareth was amazing, but, and I will probably be hated for this, he is an afterthought for me with this band. The setlist was great. I love the way Gareth sings ” Let My Tyres Down” live, just slightly offbeat and slower somehow without the music slowing at all. “Who’s My Eugene” being in the setlist made my night.

The next part of my evening didn’t go quite to plan. Sex Mask, a Melbourne band, were a big drawcard for my keenness for this year’s KSC. I haven’t been able to catch them live, as last time they played Sydney I was in Melbourne. So we left the Enmore theatre as quickly as we could and headed to Buddy’s, where they were on 40 mins after TFS. It didn’t take me long, or many conversations with security, to realise I was not going to see Sex Mask this time either. The queue was huge, and the venue had two artists on at the same time upstairs and downstairs. After the time rolled over for their set to start and I was still at least 40 people deep in an unmoving queue, I packed in and got a pizza to drown my sorrows. After demolishing a pizza, I packed up my memories and headed home. I should have headed to another venue and discovered some cool band I’d never heard of; that is what the crawl is for, but I am old and was working the following day. But I will call this KSC a win for me.