The Hard-Ons have had a few touring stops and starts through the year with their new album I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken; featuring their brand spanking new line up. They finally got to the Factory Theatre in Marrickville to show it off, supported by Chimers and Flowers for Jayne.

Photos shot for Century Venues.

Flowers for Jayne

First up tonight were Flowers for Jayne, a 3 piece made up of past members of the Lime Spiders and Smelly Tongues with drum, bass and guitar; reliving their early school band days playing hard rock from the 80’s.

Have a listen to their latest release here.

Chimers

As the room started to fill up, Chimers were next to step up to the plate. A last minute inclusion to tonight’s bill due to the old COVID shuffle; they were quick to jump into the gig slot and give us a mighty set.

Made up of drums and guitar and shared vocals, this two piece from Wollongong pack a mighty punch on stage. From the start of the set they slung out fast tempo, high energy, post punk. With plenty of staccato guitar and freight train like drums that never missed a beat; the set was full of angst filled, short, sharp, bangers that pumped up the heart rhythm. On stage, guitarist Padraic prowled back and forth in time to the angsty stop start songs, pausing at the mic only to spit out some frenetic vocals and then keep moving like a caged tiger.

Check out their album here, but get along to a show and get carried away with the wave of sound.

Hard-Ons

With an almighty guitar check smothering the room in feedback, the Hard-Ons were ready to unleash their sonic onslaught. Sporting new front man Tim Rogers on vocals, Blackie, Ray and Murray exploded into their signature pedal to the metal thrash punk rock from the get go.

The addition of Tim up front added a bit of salty swagger to the show, playing up to the crowd while the rest of the band were busy pumping out their high energy punk rock. There was plenty of headbanging hair tossing from Blackie and Ray, with Murray manically smashing his way through the drum kit.

There was a bit of back and forth banter, but they were clearly here to do a job – and that was to blow the roof off the Factory – which they proceeded to do. Of course there was also the obligatory shirts off for the band and show off your tatts, as they started to heat up the room.

The set churned through their new album I’m Sorry Sir, That Riff’s Been Taken, with a good smattering of older numbers thrown in for good measure & a cracking version of The Saints‘, Know Your Product with a guest horn section to tail out the end of the set.

A quick rest and then back out for an encore of a jam heavy version of Suck and Swallow, just to remind us that the Hard-Ons are still the Hard-Ons.

Expose yourself to their new release here but get out there and catch their energetic shows while you can.

And how’s that Brown Note? – well and truly on track, but tonight the audience was a little too civilised.