Skegss, Gaffa Tape Sandy: The Zanzibar

Skegss brought a tirade of Aussie surf rock to the Zanzibar as Getintothis’ Will Whitby was there to witness the chaos.

Formed in 2014, Skegss mix Aussie surf sunshine vibes with chilled out guitar lines of garage rock with the trio coming from Byron Bay. With a handful of EPs under the flip-flops, the group released their debut album My Own Mess last year via Ratbag Records and Warner.

It reached number 2 in the Australian charts- quite impressive for a bunch of surfer dudes.

Coming from an Aussie scene which has exported Tame Impala, King Gizzard, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and The DMAs to international success there must be something in the water down under.

Signing with Ratbag Records, their label bosses are none other than fellow Aussie party-rockers, Dune Rats and share their roster with UK noise-maker Rat Boy… Why so many rats?

Support came from Brighton anti-pop Garage rockers Gaffa Tape Sandy, their new EP Family Mammal is out via Alcopop Records on August 9th.

Dropping into their latest single So Dry the incendiary and bittersweet alt-pop jam has the leader sing and bassist Catherine Lindley-Neilson commanded the crowd in a modest tone. Their tracks are fast-paced and have a songwriting prowess that will take them far.

Emerging from the boss anti-pop scene on the South Coast the Scouse crowd lapped them up as tracks Masthead and Beehive went down a treat.

The band formed in 2015 as three mates wanting to something loud and exciting and they ticked both boxes tonight. No doubt some of their tracks went into people’s playlists on the way home- they did into mine!

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The packed out Zanzi could take no more, the bar queue was infinite, bad Australian accents were bouncing all around the room and the air conditioning was working overtime.

Skegss came on with the crowd set to burst cracking into opener Wake The Fuck Up and the crowd did just that. Exploding into a pit of hands in the air, crowd surfing, mosh pitting and singalongs that didn’t let up for the entire set.

The laid back sound on record echoed to a live setting as previously described their sound like a: “band without complex. It’s just as you hear, a slack rock band that reminds you of walking bare feet, being sunburned with stiff hair thanks to sea salt.”

The guitar lines are slack and basic and the vocals moaning and hard to make out at times but this is Skegss motif.

Here are a bunch of young lads who made music in their Aussie bedrooms about lazing off the day and a room full of eager scousers are firing back every word.

Slipping into old tracks like Glow In The Dark and fresh new ones such as Save It For The Weekend the continuing chaos didn’t let up.

Brave crowd surfers climbing atop the crowd aiming not to get tangled in the Zanzibar’s roof netting or to wipe-out a speaker stack onto the unforgiving floor below.

Emptying whatever air they had in their lungs to whistle along to summer anthem LSD big singalongs followed with the hectic crowd coming together with bundles of positive energy.

Researching the backstory of the track LSD actually stands for “Live Sleep Die” – is that the surfer equivalent of “Live Laugh Love”?

Eclectically named lead vocalist Ben Bograil offered out the crowd a fun proposition. Asking if a girl in the crowd could play the guitar she could get up and play with the band.

A girl named Amber shot up onto the stage and triumphantly play along to clear fan favourite – New York California – with a good solo too!

Dropping into a cover of Pixies’ Here Comes Your Man it was boogie time.

A raucous finale of Got On My Skateboard followed as all energy was emptied into shouting back: “I’m not getting any younger” so loud they could have probably heard it back in Brisbane.

Skegss are music for a youth that simply don’t care and just want a fun time and a fun time everyone had.

With the energy levels more akin to a Friday night than a Tuesday, the knackered but thoroughly pleased crowd emptied out into the night trying to not get run over by the midweek taxis.

Images by Getintothis’ Courtney Hughes

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