ADELAIDE BAND ‘DOWN AND OUT’ AMAZE LIVE IN MELBOURNE

LIVE REVIEW | DOWN AND OUT w/ Tiny Red Houses and Sick Visor | THE TOTE, MELBOURNE by Kayleigh Nickson

Adelaide genre-fluid band, Down and Out, performed at The Tote on 27^th June with support from local bands; Tiny Red Houses and Sick Visor. 

Tiny Red Houses are a pop-rock band from the east of Melbourne and they were one of the first additions to The Hidden Playlist back in November and I have been waiting to catch one of their performances since. Even though their set was short, it was definitely worth showing up early to see as they played a few of my favourites, including ‘more‘ and even treated us to a new song ‘Bridges‘. I thoroughly enjoyed their heavier version of ‘Naïve‘ by The Kooks – I love the original song but I have a soft spot for heavier covers of indie/pop songs. 

Sick Visor are another band that has been on my radar for a while, they were also featured in November’s edition of The Hidden Playlist. The garage-skate-punk Melbourne duo brought their energetic flare to The Tote and started their set with ‘Boring as Batsomething‘. Before playing ‘Tricycle‘ singer and guitarist, Alex, told the crowd that they wrote the song for Katie, the drummer, as she doesn’t know how to ride a bike so she bought a bright yellow tricycle – I’m not entirely sure if this story is true or just a funny gimmick but either way, I found it amusing – they had the crowd participating with the ‘Fuck that‘ part of the song as well as headbanging and dancing. They finished their set with ‘Piece of Cake‘ which is currently one of my ‘on repeat’ songs.  

I had only heard of a few songs by Down and Out before attending this show so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect and I was blown away. For a small band, their stage presence was incredible, the 5-piece band had the crowd in the palm of their hands, dancing, singing and headbanging along. Unfortunately, one of the members of the band was unable to make it to the show as he had shattered his ankle on New Years Eve and was unable to play any shows out of state. To compromise, the band had a cardboard cut out of his face so he was there in spirit and they had his part of the music recorded and playing along with the band – it was almost as if he was there. 

They performed ‘Paper Skin‘ from their 2023 EP ‘Smoke and Mirrors‘ and this song has been stuck in my head for the last week, to clarify – I am not complaining about this, it’s an incredible song and just as great live. Down and Out had just performed in their hometown, Adelaide, the night before, had a couple hours of sleep before driving down. After telling the crowd this, lead singer Luke Ganeo said “It sounds great in my ear but all I can hear is the original track so I’m just doing karaoke here“. The band treated us to a brand new song which won’t be released for a few months called ‘Guilty As Hell‘ and Luke introduced the song by asking the crowd “Have you ever fucked someone you definitely shouldn’t have?” Which was the perfect summary of the song. I’m very excited to hear the recorded version when it is out.  

Down and Out released ‘Sunk Cost Fallacy‘ which is their most recent EP in January and it’s available on all streaming platforms now. 

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Kayleigh Nickson

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