Live Review | Dune Rats @ Exchange, Bristol

Aussie pub rockers Dune Rats bring their own brand of surf-punk to Bristol… and yes, shoeys were drank on stage

Initial feedback on Brisbane’s Dune Rats came from Mondo Wave’s lead guitarist. ‘Can we just take a moment to thank Dune Rats. They’re just the nicest people. They’ve let us borrow their gear and drink their beers.’ The sweet sentiment from the Bristol-based support was a sharp departure from their music which was hard-hitting and wholly exciting, with their tracks ‘Out N About’ and ‘Ripping Me Away’ standing out as particularly punky foot-stompers. The comment ‘Fuck the guy with the maracas’, referring to a somewhat well-known TikToker playing in the next room, also helped frame the evening as an out-and-out punk gig.

I was stood front and centre when Dune Rats came on, feeling every hit of BC Michaels’ drums, as wisps of air flew at me through the outward-facing floor speaker. In all honesty, I can’t remember what Dune Rats opened with, but the way they closed it was memorable for the fun they had riding and redoing a trash can ending and jumping together for the final crash out…and then doing it again.

The set featured a lot from Dune Rats’ latest album ‘Old Mates’. The record was released a few months ago and features a collection of new tracks as well as some re-recorded fan favourites, with tracks like ‘Fuck It’ getting a very warm reception by way of a small wall of death.

At times it was hard to understand what the band was saying to the crowd, only in that a song would finish and then the band, wanting to confirm how awesome the crowd, all rushed to the mic at once. However, lead singer Danny Beus could be heard saying, ‘This is only the second night of the tour, and it feels like the last night. We’ve played some songs we’ve not played in ages and you guys are loving it.’

As you’d expect with a surf-punk band, levity strung the whole show together with a section of the crowd stagediving during ‘Scott Green’, ‘6 Pack’ and ‘Up’. At one point, a guy was beckoned onto the stage by Danny Beus to drink a shoey. Beus asked ‘What do you guys call pills here? Is it ‘pingers’?’ When the shout of affirmation came from the crowd the band tentatively jumped into a cover of Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ and inserting the word ‘pingers’ where the words such as ‘stars’ should have gone. ‘And they were all yellow…’ he sung with the crowd.

‘Right, we’re gonna do this last track and then I want to see you all outside for a few beers,’ and then came ‘Bullshit’. ‘Bullshit’ is one of those tracks that has such a unifying quality to it. Bassist Brett Jansch, swung his now-taped-up bass low one last time and people danced around arm in arm as the chorus rung out ‘I’m a little messed up (it might be the drugs). I’m a little fucked up (I might need a hug).’ It’s a reminder of the concrete joy that surf-punk brings.

Sloppy. Twisted. Perfect.

Listen to ‘OLD MATES’ here:

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