Dune Rats
Big Top, Luna Park
Sydney, Australia
October 1, 2017
Dune Rats are an Australian outfit from Brisbane, originally formed by Danny Beausa and BC Michaels as a duet with Beausa on guitar/vocals and Michaels on drums.
The band later became a three-piece with Brett Jansch of Bleeding Knees Club joining as bassist.
The Vines’ Brad Heald also made appearances on bass in 2012.
2017 sees the Queenslanders having put international shows and a release from their very own record label between themselves and their eponymous first album full of debaucherous nonsensical sing-a-longs, which documents a transition from a laid back, mellow surfey garagey rock to a more DIY punk influenced sound, infused with more anger, headiness and cynicism.
In a live context, Dune Rats would not need a whole lot of animation to fit into a Simpsons episode: They revel in the Australian art of condensing and stripping things back to its essence. Their sound is reduced to the most elemental and simplistic musical denominators, framed by melodies and bogan-esque pisstaking par for the course on an energetic show for young delinquents, including the obligatory inflatable oversized beer tinnies, which keep bouncing on top of the audience throughout the show. Good messy fun.
Odes to brew – the band has its own lager, a collaboration with Newtown based brewers Young Henrys - and the herb anthem “Scott Green” were enthusiastically received by the youthful crowd, which fed energy back to a self-aware band.
Dune Rats delivered their fun-loving, tongue-in-cheek, catchy tunes with aplomb yet have more to offer underneath the hood than celebrating the art of getting drunk and baked.
With the recent release showing bits of introspection and thoughtfulness, it should be interesting to see what their emissions amount to in the future.
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Photos by KAVV
