Project Description

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Nice Day To Go To The Club.

NICE DAY TO GO TO THE CLUB
@ Pt Noarlunga Football Club,
Adelaide,
22nd February 2025
(Live Review)

Review by Colin Reid

Photos by Deb Kloeden (@debkloedenphotography)

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Regurgitator

Regurgitator / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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Daybed Records and the Port Noarlunga Football Club put on the third instalment of their Nice Day to go to the Club (NDTGTTC) festival in Adelaide’s southern suburbs celebrating all things old and new in punk and garage rock.  There were 16 bands playing across two stages with roughly a half and half South Australian / interstate mix.

With a forecast heatwave in the very higher 30s there was a risk that it might not be the nicest day to go to the club but Daybed Records came prepared by providing some extra shade, water and sunscreen to minimise the impact of the sun.

Due to the extreme heat, we waited a couple of hours to get to ‘Porties’ as the Port Noarlunga footy club is known.  Despite the heat the queue into the ground was pretty long full of good-natured punters chatting away and smashing down a sneaky beer prior to entry.

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Kurralta Park

Kurralta Park / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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Sadly, we’d already missed Outback Cadillac, Swapmeet and Sunsick Daisy, such great band names, but were just in time to join Kurralta Park midway through their set on the Daybed stage.  Amongst their catchy originals they delivered a kick ass version of You Am I song Berlin Chair.  “This has to be the best song to come out of Australia” declared the lead singer and it is hard to argue with that logic!  Some of the young crowd were already crowd surfing and the rest were singing the words to each song and excitedly pointing their hands into the air acknowledging the band.  The great things about this festival are that isn’t too big and it always has really interesting bands that make you happy to have discovered them and Kurralta Park were certainly in that category.  Another great thing about the NDTGTTC is that has a real feel of community.  There is always someone in the crowd you’ve not seen for a while or an interaction between band and crowd that really makes you feel good.  Ex AFL football player, Big Brother contestant and radio and TV personality as well as the footy club’s number 1 ticket holder Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald gets an early shout out from the stage as the band have got a sticker with his picture on it on their guitar.  This is what NDTGTTC is all about.  It isn’t just the music, it really is community.

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Antenna

Antenna / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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The first of the interstate bands, Antenna from New South Wales hit the larger Young Henry’s stage.  A rock band with a singer that also played occasional keyboards. They were loud, powerful but still melodic.  Hell Feast, a song dedicated to everyone’s workplace was great and prompted the first circle pit of the day.  Although the southerly cool change was only just beginning to come in it was still really hot. And the lead singer was pouring water all over himself in an effort to keep cool “I might get electrocuted up here” he joked “the kids will love it.  I’ll be the singing skeleton”.  I love this band; they sound great and are as funny as it comes.  He goes on to apologise about the state of his keyboard “I can’t believe it still works, I got it for my 18th birthday”, for context he is now 44, “I think I was trying to do some Human League shit back then!”

Next on the Daybed stage was Verge Collection from Western Australia a four-piece melodic sounding indie surf rock band.  I wasn’t familiar with their songs but they genuinely had a great feel about them and were a great band to be listening too on a warm summer’s afternoon.  They had the growing crowd dancing happily, smiling and singing along.  What great day this was shaping into.

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Verge Collection

Verge Collection / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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Dr Piffle

Dr Piffle / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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How many band members can you fit onto one stage?  I ran out of fingers trying to count numbers in the interestingly named Dr Piffle and The Burlap Band.  It is unlikely that I’ll see a band as interesting and eclectic as this one ever again. Twelve of them in total! A rhythm section featuring not one but two washboards with cow bells, tea chests and saucepan drums as well as a string bass plus the occasional harmonica, accordion and trumpet all thrown into the mix.  They kind of had the vibe of a pirate folk punk band except that they weren’t pirates. “It is a privilege and a highlight for us to be here today” announced one of the band members.  I reckon the privilege was all ours to be able to see this spectacle!  They are an outrageously good time; loud, fun and unforgettable and took the crowd up to another level of energy.

Clamm from Victoria were the next to grace the smaller Daybed stage.  A three-piece alt rock outfit featuring loud and exciting rock tunes they went down really well with the local crowd. They had the mosh pit going off with plenty of the teenagers, all of who had smiles brighter than the afternoon sun, crowd surfing and got another circle pit going. 

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Clamm

Clamm / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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The Bearded Clams

The Bearded Clams / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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The last band on before the welcome to country were down south local legends The Bearded Clams who delivered a fine set of old school surf punk rock.  Despite featuring a line-up change due to one of the guitarists having to attend a wedding on festival day they didn’t miss a beat.  A highlight was the band giving away a custom skate board deck to a young fan in the audience, another one of those brilliant down south community vibes.

Another feature of this festival is that they always have a full welcome to country and smoking ceremony.  It is clearly an important part of the ethos of this festival it is good to see that it is well respected and also that the smoke carriers take the embers through all areas of the crowd.

Time to take a break and grab some food and drink before the evening session commences.  A word of the catering at Porties, it is always great value.  The event is sponsored by Young Henrys brewing and because it is a community footy club with lots of volunteer helpers the prices are low. I doubt you can find a festival of this size anywhere in the country where the beers are only $9.  The absolute legends in the club room kitchen were going all day pumping out burgers, hot dogs and huge serves of chips and gravy and if you wanted something a bit more fancy there were a number of food carts around the venue too.

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Civic

Civic / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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Restarting the music was the band CIVIC and the intensity went up past 10 on the dial.  They were absolutely smashing it out, every song a winner.  Frontman Jim McCullough prowling the stage, engaging the crowd as the band drove us on with a fast-paced punchy punk soundtrack.  It is great to see that this band is getting some attention overseas as well as at home with them down to play a gig at the Las Vegas Punk Rock Bowling festival with wonderful Swedish band The Baboon Show.

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Drunk Mums

Drunk Mums / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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I’d seen a few Drunk Mums t-shirts in the crowd so I knew that they were going to be popular and so it proved.  The crowd was thick around the Daybed stage and looking at the crowd it would be easy to believe that the local high school had emptied out its entire assembly. Good to see another generation coming through.  It was going off and security weren’t trying to stop the numerous crowd surfers but rather just trying to keep them save as best they could.  You have to love a band that shares out its vocals between all three of the guitarists, clearly a wealth of songwriting material.  ‘New Australia’ sends the crowd even higher as did their cover of Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild which seemed to spawn more crowd surfers than there was crowd to hold them up. Stop it this is too much fun!

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Where's The Pope

Where’s The Pope / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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The last of the days’ local legends, hardcore punk band Where’s the Pope? (WTP?) kept things going on the Young Henry’s stage.  Judging by the number of their t-shirts in the crowd, they were who most people were there to see and they didn’t disappoint.  Starting off dressed in traditional Papal robes lead singer Frank Pappagalo both looked and sounded great. He covered every available inch of the stage, driving the audience on to new heights.

“Stop throwing beer cans you cowards” he admonished the crowd.  Listen to your papal elder kids!  This is long overdue.  It wasn’t the first can, not all of them empty, to have come down on the stages and the crowd today.

WTP? are fun, loud, fast, powerful and political.  “This is a song we wrote in the 80s about Nazis, I didn’t think we’d still need to be singing it now.”  The reaction of some in the crowd during the welcome to country also draws his ire “this is for anyone who slunk off during the smoking ceremony” and they launch into ‘Who’s the savage now’.

There is a wildness about the crowd now. No longer crowd surfing, it has become a stream of crowd divers as fans are getting onto the stage and throwing themselves over the pit and into the arms of those still in the crowd. Finally franks calls it off “no more, people are getting smashed in the front row”.

‘Sunday Afternoon BBQ’ is another banger with the crowd singing it at one point as is ‘We Want Your Beer’ with everyone screaming the refrain back at the band.  The set finishes of with a rocking cover of The Beastie Boys “Fight for your right to party”! Superb!

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These New South Whales

These New South Whales / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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Next on was These New South Whales and to be honest this was the band that I’d most been looking forward to seeing.  They’d been in Adelaide recently, playing as part of Pirate Life Brewing’s festival Froth and Fury 4 and it is a treat to see them again so soon. Perhaps slightly out of step with the rawness that had gone before they have a smoother sound when compared to prior bands, but that is their charm for me.  Together with Regurgitator they are the only band I listen to at home.  Their songs are propelled along with a tight and punchy rhythm section and driving bass lines overlayed with complex guitar and a smooth set of vocals.

I didn’t get to see too much of Tumbleweed; the long day was kicking it and the call of a serve of chips and gravy coupled with a cold beer in the club rooms was irresistible.  I found myself walking against a tide of fans as a sizeable section of those who had been drinking at the bar went in the other direction mouthing the words to Tumbleweed’s opening number as they went.

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Tumbleweed

Tumbleweed / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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Sophie Cairo

Sophie Cairo / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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In a surprise move Sophie Cairo from La Bouche was introduced on the Daybed stage.  This really was a massive departure from everything that had gone before.  How would a selection of 90s club classics go down at a punk and heavy music festival?  With her big, beautiful voice soaring out into the Noarlunga night the crowd embraced her enthusiastically.  Suddenly the vibe was transformed into a 90s themed beach club party with the crowd swaying, singing and hand pumping the air.

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Ruby Fields

Ruby Fields / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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Next it was time for another direction change. I wasn’t familiar with Ruby Fields but she sounded exactly like I’d hoped she would. The perfect blend of ethereal indie pop and straight forward no-nonsense loud guitars.  It was modern hard-edged indie. She was backed by a really tight band that clearly love playing together and had real interactive chemistry.  I loved watching the bass players wild, whirling mass of blond hair cover his face as he swirled and danced through the songs.  Alex Cameron from Bad//Dreems was introduced to the crowd, he has been writing Ruby’s new album with her, to play one number in the middle of the set.  I think it must be in this festival’s constitution that Bad//Dreems have to be involved in some way every year!  Ruby closed out with the platinum selling ‘Dinosaurs’ which prompted a sea of mobile phones to record the last of her set.

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Regurgitator

Regurgitator / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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All that was left was for “Regurgitator” to bring us home.  It was a tight-packed crowd, crushed hard up against the fence and I had the bruises the next day to prove it!  They kicked off with ‘Kung Foo Sing’ but within ten seconds Quan’s guitar was hit by a beer can that had been thrown from the crowd.  The same thing happened last year when Teenage Jones guitarist Cahli Blakers was hit.  Seriously it isn’t hard to stop that shit from happening if the organisers take a stand, WTP? had been the only voice calling this behaviour out all day.

Predictably one of the highlights of the set was ‘I sucked a lot of cock to get where I am’.  Ben looked out at the audience and asked if there were any mums or dads here that remember them playing it at the 1997 Big Day Out?  Ben is such a legend having earlier given a pass to a long-term fan in a moon boot so they could watch from the side of stage.  Another highlight was when they worked INXS into a mash up with “! (The Song Formerly Known As)”.  “Come on, lets do it for Michael Hutchence” Quan called out.

Another great ‘Nice Day to Go to the Club’ was over.  All in all, the weather had been kind enough, the searing heat went away early and the threat of rain never came. All the bands played their hearts out.  The crowd danced, sang and crowd surfed all day long and we all went home happy; long may it continue!

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Regurgitator

Regurgitator / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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Check out Deb Kloeden’s (@debkloedenphotography) full gallery of this event HERE


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Regurgitator

Regurgitator / Photo – @debkloedenphotography

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