Set alight with the classic Australian indie sound, Melbourne’s Croxton Bandroom hosted a number of growing Australian bands on Friday night. There to celebrate the Melbourne outfit, The Delta Riggs on their ‘The Unscramble Your Lids’ tour, Eliza and The Delusionals, Bec Sandridge, and Tiny Little Houses were all present for the final show of the tour, which leaned towards an almost mini-festival atmosphere.
Hailing from Queensland, Eliza and The Delusionals opened proceedings for the evening. The four piece band drove the early growth of energy within the vast band room and helped set the tone for the night. Playing the breadth of their releases, including “Cigarette”, “Salt” and their newest single “Jackie”, the band had an appropriate sound to open for the Delta Riggs, with the two band’s indie rock tones often intersecting with one another.
With more of an individually textured sound about her music and a somewhat aloof mood sifting through her gush pop tracks, Bec Sandridge was able to take quick control of the crowd during her set. There was an obvious tonal shift in the room, but it lent itself strongly to Bec Sandridge’s tracks as a small dance pit formed and the slightly more wild side of the night began. Her weird and wonderful music was a feature of the night as “ANIMAL”, “In The Fog” and a few unreleased tracks came to prominence before her popular 2017 jam “I’ll Never Want a BF” finished the set.
Bringing the mood back to something of a neutral position, before the figurative explosion that was the Delta Riggs, were Tiny Little Houses. The fellow Melbourne outfit had a breakout year in 2018 touring their new album Idiot Proverbs around Australia and procuring many spots on the festival circuit. Compensating the powerful indie aura with a touch of their grunge inspired ‘whatever rock’, the usual suspects made up Tiny Little Houses’ set, with star 2018 tracks “Short Hair” and “Easy” among the highlights of their stellar set. “Entitled Generation” caused a stir, as the majority twenty something year old crowd heavily related at the parody of many generationally aimed opinions, which highlighted the band’s honest writing, whilst also managing to evoke sing-a-longs in even the most jaded of adults. The foursome closed on “Garbage Bin”, the track that started a whirlwind in their careers. Much like “Entitled Generation” the introspective parodist nature of “Garbage Bin” elicited a heavy response from the crowd and saw the band leave on a high note.
If you’ve ever been privy to a firework display in action, then in many ways you’ve also felt the sheer performance power and energy present in a live Delta Riggs set. Figuratively exploding onto the stage, the Delta Riggs crew and their lead vocalist Elliott Hammond had near limitless energy over the course of their time on stage.
The band opened with a barrage of tunes, as “No Friends” and “Baddest Motherfucker” cannoned off the stage early riling up the bubbling crowd. As soon as “Baddest Motherfucker” was complete a giant inflatable flamingo was run from backstage and lobbed into the crowd, amping them up until they were creating almost as much sound as those on stage. This flamingo was a constantly reappearing trick through the night, being bounced on stage consistently only to be thrown back into the writhing pit and continue the party.
New single “Out Of Place”, “June Gloom” and “Street Signs & Brake Lights” followed, filling out the middle section of the set. But, it wouldn’t have mattered what was happening on stage the crowd was completely keyed into the Delta Riggs’ manic style and emphatic live performance. Choosing a perfect yet, obvious mix and match choice for the final track of the night filled the final missing piece of The Delta Riggs’ set, as “Never Seen This Before” fused with “Get Right” and finished off the frenzied evening. As per The Delta Riggs’ sound the evening never quite went the way the crowd expected but nevertheless was a more than enjoyable way to experience the band at their full live power.
