PUSHOVER 98
Melbourne (Sidney Myer Music Bowl), 21st November 1998
by SC

Arrived at the bowl and was treated to the punk sounds of 28 Days. I'm not into them, so I can't say they were any good, but lotsa people were really into it and enjoyed it. Game Over were on next - I'm not a big fan of local punk, so I didn't like them either. They're changed-lyric version of 'Kids in America' was, I suppose, pretty funny, but they're a shit band so I didn't like it much. Biscuit were good, though. They play a heavy-funk sound not unlike the chili peppers, but their guitars are a lot louder. Their bass is very funky and they have relatively strong songs. The Avalanches were superb. Utterly incredible. Playing some new stuff and tracks off their amazing 'El Producto' EP, they were the band of the day. No questions asked. With songs like 'Run DNA', 'Rock City' and 'Rap Fever', the Avalanches are a local Melbourne hiphop outfit, who sample cheesy organ music and rhyme over the top. Look out for the Beastie Boys sample in 'Run DNA'.

Deliberatly avoided the worst band on earth, Area 7, so I saw Effigy instead - a pleasant surprise. The male lead singer looks + sounds like a girl, not unlike the British band Placebo. They're set consisted mainly of tunes from their new-ish album. They were great, and it's a shame that they've since split. Magic Dirt were, as usual, great - Adalita in fine form, yelling at the crowd etc. Great songs, with a few new ones chucked in. Beaverloop were typically hilarious, playing songs from all their ep's, with higlights being 'bad acid jazz' and 'curtly ambrose'.

Once again I avoided a band - this time the living end, they're far too teeny-bopper-ish - and saw Snout. Vocalist/Bass player Ross puts on a great show. Didn't play all that much from awesome album 'Circle High and Wide', but they're set was still one of the highlights of the day. Great songs included 'Hey Hey Hey' and 'Get In The Car'. Had a quick glance at Jebediah, who are a band who are really growing on me...I originally hated them (once again they're teenybopper following kept me away) but they're songs are quite stong and not all that bad. Only saw 2 songs, they seemed ok.

Headliners Rancid came out and put on a show typical of a big internation band - pretty damn good. I'm a fan of their new album, which isn't really all that punk - they played a few tracks off it including the superb 'life wont wait'. Unfortunatly they only played 3-4 songs off this album, with the rest being off the other records.

An OK festival, but could have been a lot better with the addition of other aus bands, cruel sea, powderfinger, you am i etc.