Words and Photos by Jade Hopley.
Seminal Swedish punk rockers Millencollin rounded out the last gig of their Australia tour here on the Gold Coast last night. They played to a sold out crowd of mostly 30 somethings who just like me were pumped to relive our teenage years. And just like every band that played on the night the crowd did not disappoint. The room was a sweaty mess of circle pits and crowd surfing; the security staff definitely worked for their cash last night, pulling one after another sweaty covered, energy driven punter over the barriers.
The night started with local band Being Jane Lane. Other than a few loyal followers most of the crowd were unaware of this GC Music award winning band of powerhouse punk rock women, who just blew our minds. Their Third song Never Have I Ever was a huge hit with the crowed with a few punters begging them to play it again! Teigan on vocals worked the room getting up close and personal with the crowd a few times, their close friendship as a band is undeniably evident, they are so together on stage and just really have a lot of fun up there. Definitely a band to watch out for!
Next up fresh out of the Gold Coast Surf was a stellar line up of punk rock royalty in GoldFinger. Fronted by the legendary John Feldmann with Australia’s Chris Cheney of The Living End and Mike Herrara of MXPX. These guys pumped the crowd into an absolute Frenzy. With John encouraging the punters to “Get the Circle pit started” you just knew it was going to be a high energy set, and they didn’t disappoint, they played a killer set with all the hits including Million Miles and everyone’s Favourite Superman. They finished up with their killer rendition of 99 Red Balloons and Feldmann stage diving into the crowd.
Millencollin hit the ground running with their new single SOS By the time they were half way through their set, the room was a sweat filled pit of humidity, no amount of air conditioning was going to cool this crowd down! The band were feeling it too, with the boys mentioning a few times that these Swedish rockers were definitely not made for the Aussie heat. Erik, at one stage remarking he has, “Never been so close to passing out in stage before”. It didn’t stop them from putting on a classic Millencolin performance, they are hands down one of the tightest punk bands I’ve seen play, they know how to write a good song and they know how to put on a show! The boys had a huge 22 song setlist, which included classics like Twenty Two and No Cigar as well as a bunch of songs from the new Album titled SOS released this year. A Highlight of the set was the Acoustic song The Ballard which saw Mike Herrara join the band on stage and a classic crowd sing along. One punter from Brazil remarking to me it was a dream to finally see Millencolin live, he spent the night in the pit and said the crowd were just all having so much fun, there was a sense of Comradery and everyone was looking out for each other. All in all it was a fantastic sweat filled, fist pumping, night of amazing music and musicianship!
