Project Description

PIST IDIOTS

2019 Ticker Tour

@Jive

10/10/19

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Caine RexEverything

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Western Sydney’s Pist Idiots currently occupy a transitional position in Australia’s colourful music landscape. They’re a cult act of former high school mates establishing a reputation as a hard working independent band, forging an unpolished sound which follows in the footsteps of legendary Antipodean acts The Saints, The Drones and Radio Birdman. They’ve not yet broken through to major success, but have amassed a core following of faithful fans.

They’re on the cusp of something big, though. Everyone who loves them can sense it drifting in on the wind, like the scent of mum’s lamb roast cooking on Sunday arvo when you’re getting home from playing marks-up at the park with your mates. Great things are on the way.

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It’s a predicament for those of us who already know them. We want the band to realise their full potential and be embraced by the public. We know it’s warranted and totally deserved. On the other hand, they’re still our little secret, a brilliant and underrated underground band of buggers who we’ve discovered and adopted as a soundtrack to beers in the evening with the boys, weekend coast drives with our significant others and knock off commutes through the city after work.

They play music which remind us of ourselves. Simple, sincere, self-deprecating. Fun loving, but prone to melancholy on occasion. Blue collar garage rock and roll with a big heart on its sleeve.

 

“Cos’ you got something to say, then you can say it to my face.

You got something then tell me, then show me.

Cos’ you’ve got things on your mind, well I’ve got things on my mind all the time,

like questions and answers, questions and answers”

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Part of us wish to keep Pist Idiots secret. It’s selfish to want that, futile when bigger things are sure to come for them, but fuck it. They’re ours and nobody else is good enough, or cool enough, or everyman/everywoman/everyperson enough to understand them like we do.

I realised this belief wasn’t limited to my own personal opinion when I saw Pist Idiots headline Hindley Street’s Indie hotspot Jive on Thursday night. Speaking to many punters before and after the energetic show, they mirrored my own thoughts: the band have an X-factor which sets them apart from indie/garage/pub rock contemporaries such as Bad//Dreems, Skegss and The Chats. Pist Idiots are destined to rise to similar heights, but it’ll kinda suck when they do, because then everyone else will be in on the secret and the Pist Idiots fan club won’t be as exclusive as it feels right now.

Because it does feel exclusive. To have jumped on board the Pisty’s train as it’s just left the station is an indulgent sensation, an arrogant ‘I liked them before they were huge’ feeling that hipsters experience when they force their music knowledge onto others.

I’ve been that arsehole hipster to many friends when mentioning Pist Idiots. They don’t really talk to me these days, presumably too intimidated by my superior music taste. Shit, most of them voluntarily listen to Drake. There’s no hope for them.

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Thursday night’s show was one for us devotees. It was a much smaller than I’d anticipated, but it was clear everyone was completely sold on the band. I saw plenty of yellow t-shirts emblazoned with the Pist Idiots love heart emblem and there was a buzz among the conversations outside that betrayed everyone’s excitement.

Dead Roo and Ricky Alberck And The Belair Line Band played short sets of melodic indie as supports, which put the growing audience in a merry mood. Even the Pisty boys came out to listen and show them love. That was great to see. Special mention must go to Ricky, I was impressed with his songwriting prowess. I hope he continues to write and perform, He’s got a bright future ahead.

It was nearing 10:30 when Pist Idiots arrived on stage. By this point the crowd had expanded, although still not as big as I expected. They were loud and receptive however, possibly thanks to a generous helping of suds from the busy bar, giving the boys a massive cheer as they launched into opening song ‘Ticker’, from their latest EP of the same name.

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Extraordinarily, a mosh pit instantly broke out. I’d never seen anything like it. The floor was only around two thirds full and yet there was a boisterous mosh going hell for leather. People were even crowd surfing, it was incredible. The enthusiasm was infectious and I saw the rest of the audience lift in reaction to this burst of activity.

The mosh pit never let up through the entire set, a rip-snorting hour-long power through the Pist Idiots oeuvre. The riff to ‘Roundhouse’ echoed like a klaxon across the heads of everyone, while wistful standout ‘Smile’ – my favourite track – sent shivers down my spine and provoked a diabolical sing-along which thankfully nobody could hear over the music.

 

“Does it make you smile, does it make you feel special, when I give you my mind and tell you how I feel?

Yeah, I’m doing alright, got my hands on the wheel, to the other side exactly where I will be waiting.

Anything I said before, just forget it, everything you could’ve thought, just forget it”

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This is why I  see something special in this band. There’s a minimalism to their sound which feels like a breath of fresh air compared to the cumbersome complexity of most Australian music lately. Pist Idiots strip it all back to a nice, clean aesthetic, leaving it open for front man Jack to embellish the compositions with his tremendous vocals.

Guttural, rough as guts and edging towards being the gnarled bark of someone desperate and demoralised at the end of a big night on the turps, Jack wrings an earnestness from his voice, livening the down-to-earth candour of each song with enough personality to sell the fact these are meaningful, personal lyrics for him, but also relatable for anyone listening.

It works perfectly with the pulsing bass of Jono, the sharp riffs from Joey, and Tom swinging hammer and tongs at his drums. They play with no pretension, no painful wanking about like plenty of bands who eschew straight forward song composition in favour of artistic self-indulgence.

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Despite the rawness of their music and their no-frills live show, Pist Idiots are confident in what they do. Each song rattles at hectic pace like a mate’s tweaked Datto 1600 brazenly fanging sideways through roundabouts. These anthemic, quintessentially Aussie tunes sound tough, monstrous and self-assured, the way songs played enough times in front of hyperactive, half-cut fans become.

Punchy new tracks ‘Sweet Headache’,’Is This What You Want’ and ‘Love Nah’ slotted in seamlessly around older favourite ‘Fuck Off’ like they’d been performed for years and all were shown equal love by the crowd who still went like the clappers. A young couple beside me spent much of this period going hard in a full on pash which seemed odd considering the subject of the songs, but never mind. Good for them.

 

“There’s 99 bottles on my floor and I wouldn’t mind adding some more.

Leave me alone, I’ve had a long day at court, tell my mother not to love me anymore”

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The Buzzcocks’ ‘Ever Fallen In Love’ made another appearance, as it had when I saw Pist Idiots open for FIDLAR in July. It makes sense to cover it, there’s a thematic similarity to their own music. Credit to the boys for introducing a new generation to an iconic god-tier punk rock classic.

The highlight was the robust trio of bobby dazzlers capping off the set, which lathered the obstreperous crowd to orgasmic completion. Heartfelt ‘Leave It At That’ morphed into a brutal rendition of ‘Motor Runnin’, before haunting early tune ’99 Bottles’ provided a powerful full-stop. With that, Pist Idiots wandered off stage to roars of delight from their exhilarated enthusiasts. It was another successful show, despite the intimate numbers and it left everyone reeling in exhausted satisfaction.

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I later bumped into a couple of lads at the Hindley Street Maccas, wobbling on their feet and lovingly clutching their Pist Idiots vinyl bought at the merch desk. We had a brief  conversation over our quarter pounders where it was agreed that these four lads are more than their jokey name suggests.

Pist Idiots are no joke. They’re fair dinkum, the real deal. It’s only a matter of time until the rest of the country catches on to their appeal. They champion a return to uncomplicated, honest Australian rock, juxtaposing it with a modern mentality. They sing for battlers and youths trying to find their identity in the world.

They’re also awesome fun. Get on board now before everyone else catches up.

 

Check out Lauren Connelly‘s gallery of the show here

 

NEW EP ‘TICKER’

OUT NOW

TOUR DATES

Tickets here

Oct 17 / Vinnies Dive, Southport, QLD

Oct 18 / The Zoo, Fortitude Valley, QLD

Oct 19 / The Northern, Byron Bay, NSW

Oct 24 / Pelly Bar – Pier Hotel, Frankston, VIC

Oct 25 / Torquay Hotel, Torquay, VIC

Feb 08 / Laneway Festival, Melbourne, VIC

Connect with PIST IDIOTS

WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | BANDCAMP

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