After a solidly hitting a few festivals, Magic Dirt are back on the prowl with their own headline shows for their On the Road 2022 tour. I caught up with them at the Crowbar in Sydney for a raucous night supported by Sydneysiders The Laurels and No Cake.

See the full photo gallery shot for AMNplify GIG PHOTOS.

No Cake

No Cake cranked up and slowly started to attract the growing crowd at Crowbar into the band room. The 3 piece slung out their signature electro post punk surf and turf – and songs about sausages.

The set jammed together quirky devo-esque synth with cheeky, rolling dance tune bass lines and persistent drums with the occasional gong smash here and there. Stick a Motorhead sounding vocal over the top, lamenting over day to day life and you have something that doesn’t fit in a box, but just seems to work.

By the end of the set, the ruckus had coaxed more and more curious punters in to have a listen and appreciate the crucible of sounds.

Have yourself a listen to No Cake, here.

The Laurels

Some gear swapping on stage, unfortunately the gong disappeared, but on came what seemed like a million guitar effects pedals. Kat Harley was doing a double shift tonight, swapping her synth from No Cake to strapping on a bass with The Laurels.

With fresh album Homecoming just out this year, The Laurels were keen to show off their new sounds and toys for an appreciative crowd. They proceeded to fill the Crowbar with their mess of melodic noise and sonic rollercoaster shoegaze.

There seemed to be a little more action on stage than I’ve seen from previous gigs; with a bit more swaying to tracks that had more than just a little hint of sweeping 90s Manchester sounds to them.

Get the sounds of their new album Homecoming, into your head here.

Magic Dirt

More gear swapping, this time to some heavy duty amps to make sure that we got the message. A little anticipation and the crowd pushed up to the barriers as the band sauntered onto the stage to start the onslaught.

From the first song, there was a mass of writhing around on stage and plenty of guitar hero postures to accompany the heavy, dirgy, pure guttural rock that washed over the crowd.

The set was made up of a mix of older and newer songs, with a few little breathers for Adalita to have a little chat with the crowd – and for the crowd to yell back a little appreciation as well.

The night wound up with a bunch of people getting up on stage to have a dance with the band to a manic singalong version of Dirty Jeans, complete with an escapade into the front row by Adalita to perform some aerial guitar antics. And then the night ended with a chaotic, mass of screaming feedback for I Was Cruel, just to ram that tinnitus down our earholes.

Remind yourself of their thunderous sound here.