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CELIA CURTIS
Vocalist for White Knuckle Fever and Stone Cold Fox
Sydney, NSW, Australia

Celia Curtis’s Top20 of 2020!

GIGS

The gigging landscape undulated wildly in 2020 but it was by no means barren. The absence of the annual stagger to (and from) River Rocks Festival in Geelong definitely stung a bit, but there were some corker live gigs and streams in 2020. Here are some of my favourites I was lucky to attend/ play:

1.   Jan 4 2020, PUNKNATS, The Old Canberra Inn
Due to raging fires and road closures, Crapulous Geegaw, Tweekers and Grim couldn’t make it. But you just can’t stop the rock. Lucifungus, Oaf, the Dirty Sluts, Minor Surgery, rooted, Hymn, Herxhaim, DuShkanu,White Knuckle Fever and(my personal faves) Thee Cha Cha Chas all went hard.

It was 44 degrees Celsius in a tin shed. Literally the worst air quality in the world. A late southerly that brought out the p2 masks and a blanket of apocalyptic Orange smoke. But fuck it was a great day. Milly, Tilly and Outtaspace Presents did a top job organising once again and The Old Canberra Inn was as hospitable as ever.

One of the Greater Sydney region’s most rocking bands (OK, Wollongong actually), The Dark Clouds, are determined to give the vinyl edition of their wickedly great album “My Way Or The Highway” the welcome it deserves.

The CD’s been out for a while (you can find multiple reviews from us here) but it always sounds better on vinyl, doesn’t it? 

TheDeanov and Terry agree and that’s why they’re hosting a free gig at The Crowbar in Leichhardt in Sydney’s inner-west on Saturday April 24, with their Evil Tone Records labelmates The Strike Outs in tow.

It’s an early show in the front bar, kicking off at 6pm, so you can kick on and party to your liver's delight into the night afterwards.

_{Matt Allison photo}

Superchunk
+ Smudge
The Sydney Crowbar, Leichhardt
Friday, December 13, 2024

1991 has gone down in folklore as “The Year That Punk Broke” and in many ways it’s true. A wave of underground music swept across music channels - in particular in the USA.

It’s also that there was a surge in guitars being bought and we can attribute this mostly to Nirvana.Scratch under the surface, and a crop of new bands had been springing up like green shoots across America for years. Releasing records on labels like Matador, SST and SubPop,they’d been criss-crossing America in broken vans, living on pills, booze, junk food and small shows  

All the action was being documented in fanzines and the underground bible Alternative Press. For me, it was even cooler than the British wave of punk as it was more street-level and organic. Names like Afghan Wigs, Sonic Youth, Babes in Toyland, Laughing Hyenas, Mudhoney, TAD, Pixies and Lemonheadswere the staple diet in the period prior to Nirvana releasing “Nevermind”.

 _{Dom Mariani and Jules Matthews.}

The Stems
The Rinehearts
Sydney Crowbar
Thursday, April 24, 2025

An annual run of shows by The Stems should be inscribed indelibly on the Australian musical calendar. Better still, make it bi-annual.

Last year, The Stems notched their 40th anniveresary and marked it with gigs all around Australia, and a tour of Europe. This show, on the eve of Anzac Day, the national day of remembrance, brought out a crop of (mostly)  rock and roll soldiers, keen to relive their 1980s youth. All looked comfortable in the knowledge that a public holiday the next morning meant most wouldn’t have to front up at a workplace. 

More than most of their peers, The Stems have a sound that’s timeless. Rooted in the ‘60s, riddled with hooks and melodies, the songs ride on the back of a powerful engine room of co-founders Jules Matthews and Dave Shaw, wrapped in Dom Mariani’s rich vocal and peppered by guitars.