Review: UNITS, Regurgitator 25th anniversary mini-festival, Eatons Hill Hotel

One of Brisbane’s best musical exports has celebrated a milestone anniversary with a dozen of their closest and most mutually respected bands.

To quote commercial FM radio, it was a long block of non-stop rock… the best of the Nineties, Noughties and today.

Only this was community radio 4ZZZ’s Destroy All Lines, and the occasion was the (belated) 25th anniversary celebration of Regurgitator’s UNIT album.

Hence the prodigious line-up of Brisbane and other talent from the past, present and future weren’t exactly Triple M fare (though Models did boast a couple of top 10 hits back in the day).

In addition to the two aforementioned bands playing Eatons Hill Hotel in an indoor/outdoor mini-festival on Saturday were DZ Deathrays, Custard, Resin Dogs, Butterfingers, Screamfeeder, Soy Division, Glitoris, Mitch, Please, The Stress of Leisure, Flangipani, Platonic Sex, Cable Ties and Cheap Date.

Regurgitator at the UNITS celebration. Picture: Bec Harbour Photography

A highlight was the original incarnation of Models with Sean Kelly, Andrew Duffield and Mark Ferrie and more recent recruit Ash Davies on drums, treating the crowd to early songs like Atlantic Romantic, Two Cabs to the Toucan and Unhappy, the set bookended by James Freud-era hits Hold On and Out of Mind Out of Sight.

“It’s a long drive up from Melbourne,” Duffield remarked before launching into relatively recent Drive Through Love.

Also up from Melbourne were Brisbane’s own DZ Deathrays, who’d played a show earlier that day and made it back home in the nick of time.

And Brisbane prodigal sons Custard received one of the biggest reactions with their career-spanning set.

DZ Deathrays at the UNITS celebration. Picture: Bec Harbour Photography

Frontman David McCormack even slipped a reference to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre into Alone: “Back when it was Westfield Indooroopilly... or maybe it was Toombul Westfield... maybe it was Chermside Westfield... there’s so many f—-ing Westfields!”

Meanwhile, drummer Glenn Thompson assumed guitar and vocal duties for his song Music is Crap.

The main event finally bounded on to the stage in bodysuits that would do Red Hot Chili Peppers proud, and keyboardist Shane Rudken who guested on their original UNIT tour in bunnysuit, whipping up the crowd.

As they made their way through the entire UNIT tracklist bassist Ben Ely commented: “This is a f—-ing weird album and I have no idea why it’s so popular.”

Custard at the UNITS celebration. Picture: Bec Harbour Photography

And after Black Bugs they revealed what was at the of Satan’s rainbow: the opening bars of Metallica’s Enter Sandman!

Once UNIT was in the can there was the only set break of the night, before the band returned to the stage in tennis-like garb (but not to play Music is Sport, as it happened).

The event was not without its technical issues: Custard padded out opener Lucky Star while guitarist Matthew Richard Strong wrestled with a guitar glitch, DZ Deathrays frontman Shane Parsons’ mike was drowned out by the band’s wall of sound on several occasions, while the Gurge’s Quan Yeomans accidentally triggered Polyester Girl early and had trouble with his in-ear feed.

“Is it OK? Am I f---ing it up too bad?” he asked the audience.

“Cos I can’t hear a f---ing thing.”

For the healthy-sized appreciative audience, any such glitches only added to the appeal.

Regurgitator continue their UNITS tour with regular shows in other capital cities in May

Regurgitator at the UNITS25 celebration. Picture: Bec Harbour Photography

Originally published as Review: UNITS, Regurgitator 25th anniversary mini-festival, Eatons Hill Hotel