“F**K THE HI-HAT” PUNK DUO SOFT PLAY RETURN DOWN UNDER

LIVE REVIEW | SOFT PLAY | 170 RUSSELL, MELBOURNE by Kayleigh Nickson

Following the release of their critically acclaimed fourth album ‘Heavy Jelly‘, British punk duo, SOFT PLAY, finally made their way down under this month for the first time since they performed at Download in 2019. 

This is their first ever headline tour in Australia with most of the shows being sold out, including their first stop, Melbourne. Performing to a packed-out crowd on 27^th January at 170 Russell (formally Billboard), support from Australian band, Coldwave.  

Coldwave are a six-piece post-punk band from Kaurna land/Adelaide. At first thought I felt their mellow sound was too much of a crawl to match the enengry of SOFT PLAY but they made it work. The crowd were soon enough bopping their heads along to the music and so was I – I’m a sucker for a band with a trumpet and I’m looking forward to checking out more of their music.

SOFTPLAY came onto the stage to the intro of ‘All Things‘ and from the crowds reaction I straight away knew this was going to be one hell of a gig. This was the loudest crowd I have heard over here so far, it was almost deafening which is crazy as it’s only a mid-sized venue that holds just over 1,000 people.  

Throughout the show, they sang Heavy Jelly in it’s entirety as well as songs from Take Control, Are You Satisfied? and Sugar Coated Bitter Truth. The only one we were missing was Acts of Fear and Love, but unfortunately they only have so much time, which is a shame because I know I would’ve happily sang along to so much more. 

Only a few songs into the set, Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent open the crowd up and joined everyone in the pit. They made sure everyone was good before Isaac explained,

“There’s a reason there’s only two of us up here tonight, and that reason is this: When me and my mate, Laurie, wanted to start a band, no one else wanted to join the fucking band. So that was that. And in those early days, people would always ask us the same stupid fucking questions. Night after night. Questions such as; Where’s your hi-hat, brother? Where’s your bassist? Nah. I don’t like this one bit. I got a response to those ignorant fucking wankers. Do you know what I tell them Melbourne?”

The crowd screamed “Fuck The Hi-Hat” in response before the duo came out of the crowd to sing the song from their 2016 album Take Control. 

The duo asked security to hand out two cases of water bottles before performing ‘Spit It Out‘. Assuming it was to make sure everyone was staying hydrated as it was very sweaty in here, but I was very wrong. During the chorus, everyone either spat the water up in the air or threw the water bottles around. We all ended up soaked but it was exhilarating; it had been a while since I had been to a show where the atmosphere was this incredible. 

My favourite quotes from the night were “All hail Keanu” before singing ‘John Wick‘ and “Why is there always someone who can do a backflip at a gig?” before a 6 second song of moshing. I don’t think any other context is needed. 

The night started out as a room full of strangers waiting to see a band they love and by the end of the night, it felt like a proper community brought together by two guys from England with their half-drum kit, electric guitar, singing about worms, over-filled bins and therapists. I can’t speak on behalf of anyone else who watched the show but for me, the show felt like home and one thing is for certain… Punk is not dead.  

For all upcoming shows from Soft Play head to https://www.softplayband.com/#tour

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Kayleigh Nickson

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