Project Description

THE WONDER YEARS

+ BOSTON MANOR + ZEN HAIRCUTS

Good Things Festival sideshow

@ Oxford Art Factory 

10/12/18

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Dani Brown

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Following on from their hot and heavy sets at Good Things Festival, The Wonder Years and Boston Manor teamed up for a special sideshow to give Sydney pop punk fans a solid dose of their favourite tracks before heading back home for the holidays. Enlisting the help of local loveables Zen Haircuts, the gig at Oxford Art Factory was going to be a bunch of fun.

While I missed Zen Haircuts‘ set due to some transport issues (a tale not unfamiliar with Sydneysiders), when I asked people around the room what they thought of their performance, both fans and those who didn’t know the band agreed that it was a wholesome start to a great night. They noted that while vocalist Kieran Baskerville was sick, it wasn’t noticeable and many said they would catch another future Zennies gig.

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British pop punk piece Boston Manor burst onto the stage, to the crowd’s delight. It appeared many punters had come to the show just to see the five-piece, with people jumping on heads by the time the second song of the set, England’s Dreaming, came around. Much of their new album Welcome to the Neighbourhood  was on show, with Funeral Party  and Stick Up going off. Frontman Henry Cox commanded everyone to jump around numerous times, but a crowd still recovering from the ridiculously hot Good Things Festival plus a day of work found it hard – so Cox compromised and jumped into the crowd himself. Somehow he and his band had more energy than half the people in the venue put together.

Things quietened down when Cox revealed a song was being dedicated to someone “very special”. He said everyone has someone like this in their life, “someone they fucking hate!”, before launching into Hate You. It seemed that’s what caused the energy to lift within the venue, especially with a sense of the set coming to an end soon. A couple of throwbacks from 2016 album Be Nothing, were chucked in for good measure, with Lead Feet  popping off before the song everyone had waited for, Laika, was played with gusto. “I’m so sorry that I’m leaving you so little to believe in” was undoubtedly the loudest lyric screamed by fans during the night. The boys rounded out their performance with popular single Halo, and in discussions with band members after the show, it seemed nearly everyone in the room would be keen to see them return to our shores sooner rather than later.

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Members of Boston Manor‘s younger crowd made way for those in the pop punk scene who were not too old to be on the floor for a mosh yet, as they prepared for the legendary The Wonder Years to take the stage. And the six-piece bounded out to raucous cheers as they started straight away with the title track from their newest album, Sister Cities. Sister Cities is an album which goes back to the band’s roots, so it is no surprise many of the old fans know all the words – it’s a new form of nostalgia for them.

Sleepy eyes seemed to now be wide open as Oxford Art Factory‘s floor filled with bouncing bodies for the pop punk heavyweights. Old favourites Local Man Ruins Everything and Dismantling Summer was what seemed to wake the crowd, before emotion overflowed during Raining in Kyoto. Emotion is always such a powerful part of a The Wonder Years set, whether it’s in the lyrics Dan ‘Soupy’ Campbell sings, the connections fans feel with a certain song, or the pure joy of looking at the person next to you and screaming the words together, knowing you’re all in this together, if only for the next 75 minutes.

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Flowers Where Your Face Should Be  brought tears to this reviewer’s eyes as phone lights shone on the band and crowd members draped arms around each other, but it was Passing Through a Screen Door  which elicited the biggest response from punters so far. Even without Matt Brasch on guitar and vocals (he was preparing for his wedding – a good enough excuse, I think), comparing The Wonder Years‘ performance to Boston Manor‘s showed the difference between master and apprentice. And with 2015 hits Cardinals and Cigarettes and Saints following before the set rounded out with Heaven’s Gate (Sad and Sober), I Don’t Like Who I Was Then and  Pyramids of Salt, fans had really been treated to a tight performance which spanned the band’s solid career.

The usual chants for an encore rang out and the band obliged, smashing out a huge version of The Devil in My Bloodstream (as if this song is only five years old?!) before Soupy threw the microphone into the crowd to belt out Came Out Swinging. It was a truly special end to the show and the band’s visit to Australia.

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