A small crowd of eager punters that had arrived early at the Troubadour were treated to a sharp set by local four piece hardcore punk band Bad Day Down. They offered a powerful opening to the night and despite the band encountering some minor technical difficulties, the crowd was enjoying themselves in the intimate venue.
Sydney three-piece punk rock outfit Huntsman took to the stage with authority and instantly kicked up the entertainment value a notch for an ever growing crowd. They played a solid set of well crafted straight edge punk songs and everyone was on their feet engaged in their performance. This is especially noteworthy considering Huntsman have only one EP released entitled It’s just Four Songs and there’ll surely be plenty more to hear from for this band. Between songs there was also some hilarious crowd interaction with guitarist and vocalist Bruz, who if this ‘band thing’ doesn’t work out certainly has a future in stand up comedy!
After a short break Brisbane punk band Side Effects entertained the room. Their set list included memorable songs such as The Day My Hair Turned White and Escape from Ratville. Although they managed to perform well, while experiencing some tuning difficulties, it seemed the crowd was more preoccupied with the bar. However, this may have been as they were preparing themselves for the headliner.
The much anticipated The Nation Blue hit the stage with an unprecedented surge of energy as they threw themselves into their set. This translated into the audience as the previously relaxed crowd came alive and were instantly on their feet rocking out. They played a violently energetic set with songs predominately from their recently released album Protest Songs including Exile, Modern Warfare and We Lost Everything. They also played older favourites from second album Damnation like Idiot and White Noise. A nice treat was when they played some older songs like Bossanova and a fan request where bassist and vocalist Matt Weston claimed they had forgotten how to play it properly, nevertheless the audience was ecstatic and sang along to every word.
As a band which has opened for the Foo Fighters, they certainly know how to entertain a crowd and they managed to use up every inch of the small stage available with a captivating presence. Guitarist and vocalist Tom Lyngcoln played with such ferocity by throwing his guitar around his body and occasionally playing it with his head and even jumping into the audience at the end of the set with his guitar. Their performance was very impressive – inspiring anyone who hasn’t already to pick up their new album Protest Songs.
