A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worse of times. Last weekend I did something ill-advised, I decided that it would be a good idea to see two concerts in the same night. I had done this previously with Lara Buchanan and Ruby Fields and it had worked out well. Perhaps that past performance had given me unfounded confidence.

The plan this time was to see Holly Hebe at 38 Berwick, in the Valley and then rush up the Bruce Highway to King’s Beach Tavern, on the Sunshine Coast, to see the Rogue Traders. The timings were checked and should comfortably work with me being able to even see the support act for the second concert, Dizzy Days.

Concerts, much like their venues and locations, represented substantially different crowd demographics.

Brisbane and in particular the Valley, has a pretty young demographic with Holly Hebe’s fans taking this to an extreme. The concert was an all ages event held at 38 Berwick, which for those of you who are not aware, is the site of the Music Industry College. It’s a solid venue, with a relatively small capacity, and seems to specialise in providing emerging artists a matinee performance. Tickets were cheap, and whilst they don’t have a bar, they do have a vending machine.

Doors opened at 4:00pm, which is a good time for a concert. My plan was to be out the door again by 6:30pm. The crowd was about 95% teen girls with an average age likely to be just shy of 18 and likely that old because of the small number of parents also attending which were doing the hard work of lifting the average.

Really, there are not many things scarier than a crowd of fanatical teenage girls. Maisie Peters is really on the mark when she suggests in her song Mary Janes that they should represent us when the aliens invade because the aliens would really have no chance. The number of conversations I overheard where it went something like omg, they are so old, he’s like 25 or something is concerning. Not least because the average 25 year old should still be considered and treated like a child due to the developmental state of their brain at that age. For clarity, in none of the conversations I overheard snippets of where they referring to me directly. For context, if someone thought that I was 25, I would assume that they were taking the piss.

In any event, the opener was Sammi Heaney who preformed an acoustic show and was genuinely enjoyable. Sammi had a raw authenticity to her, whether it was her initial technical struggles where she hadn’t plugged in her guitar, to her raw unvarnished commentary between her songs.

Sammi’s music was good and she connected well with the audience. Her original music was skilfully put together and she is clearly talented. Her voice had a raw quality to it which was enjoyable to listen to, but which, if I am being honest, was more beguiling when she was just talking normally in-between songs. I reckon Sammi would make a stellar audio book narrator or voice over actress (or main stream actress since she objectively has the looks for it) if her music career falls through. This is unlikely, since I think she will no doubt have a successful music career. She definitely has a solid stage presence however she doesn’t seem to have any currently released music which should be rectified, particularly so that she can capitalise on the exposure she’s getting from supporting Holly on her tour.

Holly’s performance was exceptional, as was expected from an artist who that day had her debut EP Mood Ring which only took a week to make it to a well deserved number 1 on the ARIA Charts. I had been fortunate to see Holly previously when she had supported Aleksiah’s tour in May, 2026. She is an artist that when her tour was announced, I immediately purchased a ticket even though it notionally clashed with pre-existing plans. Fuck that, Holly should take precedence, kind of like the indie artist equivalent having your wedding on at the same time as the World Cup final when England finally get their act together.

Holly is already quite popular with over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and just shy of 14,000 followers on Instagram. IT begs the question as to why 38 Berwick with a capacity of about 100 people was chosen for her Brisbane tour stop. The gig sold out, as it should have, however, I was left wondering why a bigger venue with a traditional doors open at 7 or 8pm wasn’t picked.

In a world where indie pop stars seem convinced that they should be playing guitar along with their vocals, Holly is a breath of fresh air, with her favoured instrument being a keyboard. This suits her more electronic music tone and the way she puts the harmonies together, if she wanted to give up on singing, she would likely be a top tier DJ.

That would be a waste though. Holly’s original songs and lyrical ability is perhaps her greatest strength. Her EP is beautifully curated and effortlessly pulls the listener through a diverse range of emotions over the course of the album.

Holly’s performance had a number of stand out hits with her performances of Mood Ring, Swimsuit, Baby pick your phone up and Crying Your Eyes Out being very well received with large sections of the audience singing every single word. As I said earlier, not much is scarier than fanatical teenage girls.

Overall, the concert was a 10/10 experience which I would happily pay to see again and with its early start, I was out of the venue and on my way to King’s Beach Tavern by 6:30pm.

Now, the biggest risk to my somewhat ambitious timetable was always going to be the Bruce Highway. Saturday afternoons/early evening is always going to be a busy time on the Bruce and this trip was no different. However by some miracle, I managed to get to Caloundra and secure good parking by 7:50pm. This was perfect because Dizzy Days where due to go on at 8:00pm.

Now, the demographics of the Sunshine Coast region and in particular the Caloundra and king’s Beach areas could not be more different than Fortitude Valley and Brisbane as a whole. The area could perhaps be best described as what Pauline’s ideal Australian monoculture would look like with the average age being close to pension age.

Really, the whole area is Boomer central where instead of a dew point, the air condenses into a physical manifestation of entitlement. A place where managers never get any work done because they are constantly being summoned by Karens.

The crowd for the Rogue Traders concert was exactly as imagined for that area. I mentioned earlier that there is not much scarier than fanatic teenaged girls. A crowd of white boomers is one of those things and it permeates the experience of the concert as a whole.

People seem to reach an age in Australia where they simply stop giving a fuck or choose to ignore how their behaviour impacts on those around them. I was fortunate to be able to get a spot somewhere close to the centre and only about 5 people from the front of the crowd. However, for the majority of the Rogue Traders set, a number of people who just have their phones held as far above their heads as possible recording the show, or because they were technologically illiterate, would leave their camera flash on. There is nothing more annoying then having your view blocked because some idiot is just recording the entire concert, videos, which if we are being honest, are unlikely to ever be watched in full again.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for taking a couple of photos or videos to remember the night but be discrete about taking them and keep it quick. What’s the point of going to a live music event if you are just going to hold a camera in front of your face the entire time? You might as well just watch a concert on YouTube.

Anyway, now that my rant is over, the actual performances were awesome.

Dizzy Days opened and immediately enraptured the crowd with a high intensity mix of originals and covers. The all female quartet were stupidly good and are definitely a group that I am going to see again. I already have tickets to their upcoming tour.

Their songs Creepin’ and It’s Me It’s Not You were particular highlights and were delivered with an energy and passion that got the crowd dancing, which according to their Spotify bio, is all that they are trying to do.

After Dizzy Days, it was onto the main event. That being the Rogue Traders. The Rogue Traders hold a special place in my heart with their album Here Come the Drums coming out in my later teenaged years and thus being a formative part of my high school days. There have been a couple of concerts this year that I have immediately purchased tickets for solely for the nostalgic factor, being Wheatus, Linkin Park, Birds of Tokyo  and upcoming concerts for Bachelor Girl, Cascada and Evanescence. Rogue Traders are well and truly within said group.

The energy that they bring to the stage is astounding and there is no way that my mind can accept that Natalie Bassingthwaighte has passed a half century in age. She doesn’t look a day over 40.

The concert really was a playlist of all their greatest hits with the band raising the intensity and keeping it their for the entire 90 minute set. The sheer audacity to be lie to the crowd about lowering the intensity for a breather and then playing Icona Pop’s I Love It at a level where I genuinely had concern where they could maintain the intensity.

If Dizzy Days had the one goal to make us dance, then the Rogue Traders had the simple goal to ensure that we were fully entranced and entertained from the start to end. They brought the show to a beautiful crescendo with Voodoo Child and then performed Pink’s Raise Your Glass as their encore.

It was refreshing to see a legendary band do a cover as an encore, it really showed how unpretentious and committed to their singular goal that they were that they didn’t feel the need to perform an original as their encore. And as a result, they absolutely smashed it out of the park. The crowd was left on a massive high and the set could only be described with superlatives.

Ultimately, the night was a memorable one. I experienced two events that really hold positions close to the opposite ends of the target demographic and locations that were wildly different from each other. The common thread was one of entertainment and fun. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the emotions and the stories that artists are trying to convey through their music and, yes, these messages play an important role in shaping the cultural landscape in which we live. However, sometimes it’s useful to take a step back and just enjoy the sheer energy and joy that manifests when listening to good live music and forget about live for a while.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•