The Twerps, The Tote, August 4

Discovering a new band you immediately love is one of the greatest joys in Melbourne and on the Earth. We were excited enough to be seeing Twerps but first support on the night, The Stevens blew our minds. Very unassuming-looking the band share vocals amongst the three guitarists and are backed by a drummer. The Stevens have that frustrated suburban kid sound that you probably only remember from when you were one yourself. If you want to take a listen (these are the only tracks they have on the internetz), ‘Track 6’ highlights what they do best (it also gives a shout-out to Christmas, who doesn’t love Christmas?).

Bushwalking were up next. We were still kind of dazed from falling in love with The Stevens so we didn’t really notice when some technical problems occurred, but whatever was causing the problems was fixed soon enough and everyone got back to enjoying Bushwalking’s lovely duel female vocals. If The Stevens sound like frustrated suburban kids then Bushwalking are those mysterious Goth kids from your highschool. We’ve had a listen to them since the gig and were pleased to see their song titles. With tracks entitled ‘Visual Jam Doughnut’ and ‘Bushwalking to the Moon’, we’re intrigued to see which members have the sense of humour.

Only heading out for a cheeky smoke/fresh air in the Tote courtyard for two minutes we suddenly turned to find the band room packed out. That is the problem plaguing every Twerps gigs since they got back from the United States, all of a sudden everybody wants a hot slice of the Twerps pie. Thank goodness they put on two shows, otherwise Melbourne’s Gen Y community would never be able to fit a Twerps gig into their bizz-ay schedules, what with triple j unearthing a new band every ten seconds – *headaches*.

Marty’s vocals never hit a wrong note and it’s those awkwardly honest lyrics of the Twerps have kept us as fans since they started out. The rest of the band was in good form, and it seemed as if this set was like a welcome home party for old friends. Playing a new gloomy, bus-ride-anthem ‘Who Are You’, everyone sang along making us a feel a little less alone in the world. Hopefully no one ever grows too old to not relate to a Twerps song.

WORDS: Hannah Joyner