Words by Coco Le Sex Bomb
Heat and humidity are two things that come to mind when people hear the three devilish words that are Far North Queensland, and rightfully so!
The heat and sweat are only rivalled by how beautiful the landscape and people are. That being said, generally it’s TOO FUCKING HOT and bands rarely come up this way. This is why you find so many people, myself included, jumping at the chance to see a touring band, and when the Waax Most Hated Girl Tour was announced it was no exception.
Firstly, let me paint a picture.
Three large tattooed dudes, completely lost in the middle of a dark JCU campus with only the distant echo of a sound system to guide our way. It’s hot. We are thirsty, and have lost one of us down a creek somehow. Climbing through a bush, we emerge only to find out we went the long way around and made things ten times harder than they had to be, and it was a two-minute walk the other way!
Entering the bar, it’s unlike any campus bar I’ve ever been to. It’s more like a fully set up live music venue, so naturally feeling at home I found the perfect spot right next to the bar, got comfortable, ordered a round and finally for your sake AND ours … music!
The night started with local band Lost Crowd. Sadly the irony wasn’t lost on us as when they started it was just us and maybe five other people but boy oh boy did they start with a bang.
They came out with the energy you would expect if the place was packed, and honestly it was the late crowd’s loss. As the place filled up, the band only got more into the set. With a perfect blend of grungy rock with funk and blues elements, they are heavy enough to get into, but also melodic and chilled, something you can listen to while you begin your Sunday sesh at 11am and rock out all the way through to the after hours kick-ons.
Lost Crowd are a band to watch out for in the future, and I urge you to have a listen the first chance you get.
Time for another drink.
The night started out with such a bang, I was thinking to myself, what could possibly be next? Where could this lead? What adventures await?
Did my friend ever get out of the creek?
Then, out walks this big dude with a guitar chugging away. Stopping, he waves at the crowd with this crazy look in his eye that would elicit a fear based fight or flight reaction in any other situation, before chugging away again and getting lost behind the drum kit. He then pops up out of the dark at another point of the stage like a weird metal version of whack a mole as more members pop up out of the darkness and I knew shit was about to get real. Before we knew it, The Riot from Victoria had started, and it went off. The band was tight, the sound was huge, and the frontman was electrifying.
It was like Living Colour meets Rage Against The Machine meets Denzel Curry.
It was heavy and groovy, with fat riffs and even fatter hooks. When I say it was impossible to stay out of the pit I mean it, and if you could manage to resist the urge the band came to you. Singing and rapping over this huge sound while crowd-surfing and moshing I couldn’t believe I hadn’t made a mess in my pants yet, and to be perfectly honest I didn’t know how anyone would top that set.
But then WAAX happened.
No … wait, I need a drink.
NOW WAAX. If you don’t know WAAX … why? You don’t have an excuse? Listen to them now! Right after Lost Crowd and The Riot of course.
I was standing there thinking I should have got another drink, and as the band walked on stage you could almost feel the air get thicker as any and all reservations got blown out the window.
You know that look? The one the person on stage gives a crowd when they know that you know that they know that they have you 100% in the palm of their hand? Well we fuckin got it just as you see the silhouette of tattoos and angst jump from the drum riser stomping on the stage to kick-start the first song almost as if to be the starting gun to the race to the front of the stage. BANG, and we are off. It’s a sea of sweaty t-shirts, beer cans, hair and fists in the air and as the Townsville Uni Bar jumped up and down the set was sheer chaotic fun. Everyone – and I mean everyone – got involved in the punk rock debauchery.
As the night went on, we even got to sing Maz – the singer – happy birthday, almost like the perfect little cherry on the cake.
We laughed, we danced, we drank our fill, and we rocked the fuck out!
10 out of 10 WAAX and 10 out of 10 Uni Bar you did not disapoint.
