Words by CECILIA PATTISON-LEVI
Pix by Sarah Gilpin
Sandstone Point Hotel was the venue for the final show in the Red Hot Summer Tour 2025 Series 2. It was more a ‘Grey Wet Autumn Tour 2025’ with the last day being completely soggy and wet. Sandstone Point Hotel is a great venue, but when the weather brings rain, it does put a dampener on things.
And, boy! Did it rain? It did, and the venue was like a sponge. But that’s the reality of outdoor gigs – the elements and weather come into play. But as Chris Cheney from The Living End stated: “We won’t let the weather or mother nature beat us”. The fine musicians and bands that performed offered incredible and varied styles of rock. The Red Hot Summer Tour 2025 really delivered an astonishing line-up of the most amazing musicians: Dallas Frasca, Rose Tattoo, Baby Animals, The Living End, George Thorogood And The Destroyers and ZZ Top.
Sunday’s crowd at the Red Hot Summer Tour 2025 was much younger than the other days of the tour. The crowd was more chilled. There were still many men at the event, with a lot of older men at the front. This day of the tour was not a completely sold-out event, but there was a large crowd.
Dallas Frasca kicked the day off, and she played solo. She lit up the stage with her marvellous rock and blues voice as she delivered the fantastic blues-rocker Anything Left To Wonder. Dallas Frasca did not disappoint with her amazing guitar and vocal ability. Her raw, spirited love of the blues, rock and country music reverberated through the venue with her stunning guitar playing and her huge voice: it was an undeniably special moment.
Dallas Frasca really knew how to connect with a big crowd. She engaged the crowd and set about delivering a mix of old and new tracks. Her songs and musical delivery were resolute and stylish,h especially her second song of the set, All My Love. It was performed so well. It was great to hear songs from her 2024 Force Of Nature album, especially the fabulous country-tinged rocker River Queen and the appropriately titled Let It Rain – and boy did the rain fall! Dallas Frasca had a larger-than-life presence on a stage, especially when she delivered a medley of Led Zeppelin songs. The crowds were amazed. Watching Dallas Frasca from the barrier was incredibly powerful as she has one of the best female rock ‘n’ roll voices in Australia.
The quality of the line-up meant that Rose Tattoo made a surprisingly early appearance with a mid-afternoon set. The band put on a very loud and professional performance as they opened their set with Scarred For Life. Angry Anderson was restrained mood as the band dictated the flow of the set. He was a very upbeat. The band’s guitarists Mick Arnold and Ronnie Simmons were fantastic and the rhythm section of Steve King and Paul DeMarco put in the structure that underpinned the swing behind these bar-boogie rock songs that were delivered in full force, especially Rock ‘N’ Roll Is King.
Rose Tattoo played all their hits like Rock N Roll Outlaw and Bad Boy For Love but it was great to hear Rose Tattoo’s most recent single, which is a cover of Stevie Wright’s Hard Road, played. Ronnie Simmons’ slide guitar prowess was just next level. His guitar playing skills is the oxygen in Rose Tattoo’s signature sound. The band delivered their Australian pub rock classics We Can’t Be Beaten and Nice Boys that had the crowd singing along and it was an impressive ending to their set.
Rose Tattoo are an important rock band in Australian music history. The band will be celebrating their 50 years as a group next year. Rose Tattoo sounded great and they delivered a ‘no bullshit’ with straight rock ‘n’ roll – approach for their whole set. Make no mistake, they were loud (really loud), and I was thankful we were outdoors as Angry Anderson thanked said the crowd “were true rock fans” for putting up with the wet conditions.
The Baby Animals set was amazing. The band and frontwoman Suze DeMarchi took to the stage and opened with Rush You. Suze DeMarchi is the definition of the rock queen. The band were all smiles throughout the set as the crowd really delivered the energy back at them. Suze DeMarchi’s rhythm guitar playing was on point. Dave Leslie’s skilful guitar playing was on full display. Dario Bortolin was dynamic on bass, and drummer Ricki Rae meshed the melodic elements together. And, the result was tremendous.
The set was wall to wall hits with and it had fans singing from the start with Email. Then, the band stated that “they weren’t a political band” and delivered Waste Of Time, then the wonderful Painless followed, then Break My Heart and the incendiary Don’t Tell Me What To Do. And that was just the start, and we weren’t even near their biggest hits like One Word, Early Warning or Ain’t Ginna Get. Then, the band was joined by Dallas Frasca and they performed “their festival track” a cover of Fire by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The track demonstrated Dave Leslie’s real gift for playing guitar. His riffs and his solos are so unquestionably his and at the core of the signature sound of the Baby Animals.
Their set was so much fun and they are such a wonderful band to see live. The best moment came when Chris Cheney joined the band to perform Ace Of Spades, and it was outstanding. It was another fantastic performance.
Well, the Red Hot Summer Tour 2025 has delivered three out three stunners so far with exceptional performances. And, The Living End were up next!
The Living End were amazing. They ignited the crowd by delivering an astonishing set. It was truly the finest and most electrifying performance of the day. And, that is really saying something as the other bands and musicians up to that point were fantastic, but these three guys (Chris Cheney, Scott Owen and Andy Strachan) were next level. There is an energy and level of performance from this band that is just astonishing and you can’t take your eyes off them.
The crowd danced, sang and had the time of their lives. The Living End have a huge back catalogue with eight albums and more than 24 hit singles to their name. But they delivered the best setlist for a gig like this in the outdoors and the rain. Did I mention – it rained a lot. The Living End encouraged the crowd to stand firm and embrace the elements. They opened their set with Roll On and moved quickly into the fantastic Second Solution before Chris Cheney addressed the crowd. He is the voice of reason in an insane age, and it was good to hear him saying the right things to people about learning to think for themselves.
The band then delivered a string of songs that pushed the crowd into overdrive: songs about a prostitute, Pictures in the Mirror, then the marvellous Hey Hey Disbeliever and the wonderful All Torn Down. Then, Chris Cheney stopped to discuss the disastrous state of rock ‘n’ roll in this country. He lamented about the lack of support for Australian music on radio, and he told of his concerns about the lack of new bands coming through to listeners and to play in festival settings. He introduced The Living End’s wake-up call to Australian music fans, the new single Alfie from their upcoming album. It was a winner! Let’s hope it gets the radio play it deserves.
Then, if things couldn’t ramp up anymore, it did! The Living End whipped everyone into a fenzy with How Do We Know, the awesome West End Riot, the huge sing-along medley of Waltzing Matilda, E Boogie, with AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap while Chris Cheney played his guitar with a beer bottle before skulling the contents. As Chris Cheney said “a band that drinks together – stays together”. Then, there were stories about coming home at 2am from band practice tired and emotional after drinking the “best beer VB – from the best state” with White Noise. And, then they closed with Prisoner Of Society. The Living End were so, so good!
The Living End were going to be a hard act to follow for any musician, but George Thorogood had a plan! George Thorogood and his Destroyers came to the stage and just hammed it up with total musical skill and control. They brought the bluesy, dirty and “nasty” party with the opener Rock Party and Who Do You Love? And, George Thorogood at 72 years of age showed no signs of slowing down.
George Thorogood And The Destroyers put on a hard-rocking blues set that was mind-blowing. His recent side shows and performance at Bluesfest had people talking and raving about him. It was easy to see why as he delivered Mama Mama, the funny I Drink Alone, the sing-along One Bourbon One Scotch One Beer where he loved the Aussie accent being sung back at him and the spectacular Cocaine Blues. The whole set saw George Thorogood deliver cheeky musical fun as he swaggered and played across the stage and to the crowd.
His voice was strong, his guitar skills were so impressive and freakishly good. He thanked in a genuinely funny and entertaining way The Rolling Stones for influencing him: “Keith Jagger or Mick Richards – I mix up the names – I don’t know – they sent me on my journey – around the world” with music. He was obviously having a great time. His band were outstanding, simply next level – with Buddy Leach’s saxophone sound reverberating around the venue. Guitarist Jim Suhler was the perfect partner in crime to George Thorogood’s playing. The bass of Bill Blough was silky smooth and precise. The drummer Jeff Simon drove the whole band along.
The ten song setlist was an absolute blast! George Thorogood And The Destroyers delivered it with proven skill, especially the songs: Cocaine Blues, Twilight Zone, Gear Jammer, Get A Haircut and Bad To The Bone. But their superpower was charm. George Thorogood could charm snakes! Nothing in the set felt forced or rehearsed. It was unfiltered and genuine raw blues-rock fun. George Thorogood And The Destroyers were simply a delight to listen to and watch.
ZZ Top appeared, and it was sparkle city from their hats to shoes. The 80-minute set was packed to the brim with ZZ Top’s hits and delivered a hit of nostalgia. With the band not releasing new music since 2012, the performance was a greatest hits set. But what a set of songs they had lined up. Their back catalogue is an amazing legacy, and the quality of their music stands. And it was the songs they delivered that kept the crowd glued to the spot in the soggy venue and rain.
ZZ Top certainly know how to make an entrance with a seventeen-string bass being used on the first song Got Me Under Pressure, and it was astonishing to see it played. I just have to say that John Douglas’ drumming was outstanding throughout the whole performance. But, the overall performance from ZZ Top was a little flat (except for the drummer – he was on fire!). The band was fairly bland watch but there was something missing; that chemistry and style that the original members brought to the band. The gimmicks in the sparkly outfits, the furry guitars, the guitars with LED-screens in them and a 17-string bass couldn’t hide it.
ZZ Top are an iconic band, but they lost the momentum of the day built up by the other magnificent performances that had led up to their set. However, I think that the crowd was happy and had that look of joy on their faces as they left the venue knowing they had seen ZZ Top perform.
It was wet. It was soggy. The water and mud started to smell. We were all covered in mud and sawdust. But the Red Hot Summer Tour 2025 was rock fun in the wet!
