Love City Radio.
Love City Radio
+ The Spivs
+ Gav Doniger
Iron & Resin Garage, Currumbin, Queensland
Friday, September 18, 2026
Words and photos by ANGELA EVOL
Currumbin’s Iron & Resin is not a purpose-built music venue. It is a working motorcycle garage with a restaurant and performance space attached, housed in what feels more like a big tin shed. Vintage motorcycles and motoring ephemera are dotted around the place, giving it plenty of character and making it a fitting setting for a night of loud guitars and rock and roll.
There are lots of people in early tonight and the mood is upbeat and friendly from the beginning. Each act pushes the evening a little further, moving from mellow to bold and, finally, a bit mental.
Gav Doniger opened the evening alone with his guitar. Known from The Van Bams and Mescalito Blues, Doniger played a set of entirely original material with a cruisy, acoustic and bluesy feel.
Plenty of people were catching up and talking, although others were paying close attention. Doniger's understated performance eased the room into the evening before the volume and intensity increased considerably.
Lismore's Love City Radio occupied the middle slot, but they were the reason I was particularly interested in this show.
The band describe themselves as psychedelic garage pop, although that does not quite convey how big and full they sound live. There is plenty of melody in their songs, but also real weight behind them, too. The band members are not simply leaning on familiar influences or the reputations of their members. They already sound like a band ,with a distinct identity of their own.
Love City Radio captures a big crowd
Love City Radio are Dave Slade on vocals, Glen Martin on guitar, Mikey Couvret on bass, Brad Redden on keyboards and Mike Charles on drums.
There is some serious Australian rock and roll history within that line-up. Slade served time in Frankenstein, SLUG and No Man’s Land. He is a seasoned frontman and songwriter whose own catalogue feeds into Love City Radio’s original material.
Couvret is the first, third and sixth bass player of the Celibate Rifles, reflecting his three separate stints with the band. Charles is best known for his work with the Screaming Tribesmen and Lipstick Killers. He was also the drummer in Shy Impostors alongside Richard Burgman and Peter Oxley, who went on to Sunnyboys.
That's a substantial collective pedigree, but Love City Radio never felt like a nostalgia exercise or a casual gathering of musicians trading on their former bands.
Opening with “Inside Your Heart”, they immediately sounded cohesive and assured. Martin’s guitar, Couvret’s bass, Redden’s keyboards and Charles’ drums combined into a broad, powerful sound while leaving plenty of room for Slade at the centre.
Dave Slade.
Slade commands the stage. He has great presence without being over the top. His performance is controlled but dominant, and he holds the audience’s attention without resorting to exaggerated theatrics.
Their set consisted entirely of original material. “Inside Your Heart” was followed by “Brokenhearted”, “We Need a Saint”, “Goodbye” and “Curtain”. From there, “Brad’s Song” and “Eternity” led into the expansive “End of the World”.
The set gathered momentum as it went. People began dancing, the applause became louder and the gaps between songs were filled with clapping, cheers and plenty of appreciative woo-hooing. The audience was not merely being polite. Love City Radio were steadily winning the room.
“Midnight” and “Love City” carried that energy into the final stretch before the band closed with “Hell of a Time”.
That was my favourite song of the night, coming at the end of an outstanding set of songs. Slade pushed the vocal into rawer territory, delivering the finale with an almost screamed passion. It felt like the emotional release the set had been building towards, and it left the strongest impression.
The most encouraging thing about Love City Radio is that their past does not define them. Their collective history may attract attention, but the songs justify it. They have their own sound, their own identity and, judging by the response at Iron & Resin, the ability to bring an audience with them.
The Spivs (with whom I have a familial link) closed the evening with their energetic garage rock and roll. The sound engineer gave their already raucous sound extra size and clarity as they tore through a mix of originals and garage favourites, including “What U Really Like”, “Voodoo Doll”, “Lover Man”, “Strychnine” and “You’re Gonna Miss Me”.
The Spivs close the night.
By then the friendly mood had turned into a full-blown party, with The Spivs pushing things towards the loose and slightly unhinged end of the scale.
The three acts complemented one another surprisingly well. Gav Doniger opened things in mellow and bluesy fashion, Love City Radio filled the room with a bold, powerful set of original songs, and The Spivs finished the night in full party mode.
For me, though, Love City Radio were the central story. They may carry an enviable amount of rock and roll history between them, but this is a band looking forward, not backward. On the strength of this performance, they have the songs, sound and presence to stand entirely on their own.
