Review: Gather Sounds Night Two @ Cloisters UniBar Adelaide 11/04/26
Bad//Dreems went out with a bang at their final Adelaide show, leaving everyone wanting more.
Words Jack Paech // Images Henry Maurin
Gather Sounds Night Two @ Cloisters UniBar Adelaide 11/04/26
Hours before Bad//Dreems are set to take the stage for their final Adelaide show, I find myself standing out the front of the Unibar with frontman Ben Marwe. I’ve just caught his attention, but he’s clearly got a lot on his mind, so I assure him I’m not here to interview him. Instead, we end up having a broad, free-flowing conversation about Bad//Dreems’ ethos as a band. He rapid-fires observations about the band’s ups and downs, but what I appreciate the most ends up being his random interjections. At one point, he interrupts himself to ask me, “What’s the vibe out there? Is it a party?”
It's here that I realise that Bad//Dreems biggest strength as a band essentially boils down to how much they care. Sure, they care about the quality of their performances, but mostly Marwe and Co feel a deep, selfless responsibility to make sure that every audience member experiences the connection to community that has been the group's driving force all these years.
The decision to make their last show a “celebration of Australian music” and not specifically a celebration of themselves might be, in hindsight, the most Bad//Dreems thing the band has ever done. By spotlighting their peers in such striking fashion, the four-piece reveal the reason for their success, their vitality. Bad//Dreems is a band for the people, and that is behind every choice they make.
So, in the interest of respecting that essence, a brief overview of the night is in order. The first thing that becomes clear is that every band knows how special it is to be on the bill. Outback Cadillac ply their rugged Australiana on the indoor stage with beaming smiles. Their set is defined by infectious harmonies and open chords that walk the dusty landscapes of their songs with an easy confidence. At this point, the Unibar is already swarming with patrons, and many of those patrons freeze on their way from the bar to the outdoor seating area to listen. From my vantage point by the lighting desk, I can see people willingly being whisked away to a place somewhere under the all-encompassing Australian sun, surveying the arid land with wide, awestruck eyes.
After Outback Cadillac’s set, I am writing notes down when an intoxicated man wearing a Bad//Dreems shirt approaches me and asks me if I’m okay. I respond affirmatively and explain that I’m only sitting on my own so I can take notes for a review I’m writing. He asks me if I’m excited for Phil Jamieson, and I explain that I am because I was obsessed with Grinspoon as a kid. The man responds, “Hell yeah. Weren’t we all. Have a great night, brother.”
While Jamieson plays, a 40-something-year-old woman in bell-bottom jeans casts off her inhibitions in the front row, throwing herself around like everyone’s watching, and that’s exactly the way things are supposed to be. The band launches into a performance of ‘Weekends’ missteps during the introduction. Phil says, “Sorry guys, I messed it up,” before letting out a coyote laugh. The spontaneous moment in the middle of the rehearsed set adds a funny little human touch to proceedings, and the ease with which Jamieson resets and barrels headlong into one of the most impassioned songs of the night speaks volumes to the easy connection between the few people on stage and the hundreds that aren’t.
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The party rages on. Ricky Albeck stomps, twangs and croons his way into the audience’s hearts. Silhouetted against the lights, the members of Kurralta Park seem to levitate on stage, translating their disaffected, garage-y choruses into frenzied barnburners that work the crowd into a fever pitch right before the last set of the night.
And then it’s Bad//Dreems’ turn. The audience gathers in the courtyard by the outdoor stage and the air pressure changes. It’s almost as if everyone in attendance has taken one deep breath in unison and held it. The exhale happens during ‘Ultra Dundee’ – the title track to the band’s new (and final) record. The moshpit comes alive like a sudden dust storm, and its radius expands as it draws its life from Marwe’s animalistic refrain: “What’s my name? Tell me, what’s my name?”
The band is magnetic, yet in a way that strikes me as poetic – the set does not go perfectly. There are a couple of minor technical difficulties, and after a moment of quiet towards the end of the set, Marwe approaches the mic and addresses the crowd, explaining that drummer Miles Wilson is injured. Marwe says that Wilson has powered through it for the entire set but can’t physically play much longer. But Bad//Dreems have made a career out of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, and they hoist themselves up here, maybe for the last time, for a rendition of ‘TNT’ by AC/DC. They're aided by Reverend Ray of West Thebarton, who echoes Bon Scott’s signature abrading rasp with an accuracy that surprises no one who’s ever listened to the inner-west icons. Many of the night’s esteemed guests crash the stage and jump around in a cathartic huddle: Jack from Pist Idiots, Phil Jameison, Beddy Rays and Caitlin Harnett are among them. After they've just run the gamut of emotions from hunger to love to frustration, it all peaks here – with those iconic power chords ringing in everybody’s ears.
Marwe spends his last few moments on stage apologising to the crowd – his tone has a pinch of irony and good humour, but it’s obvious that some part of him feels as though they may have fallen short of providing a fitting send-off: “Sorry everyone. This isn’t exactly how we wanted to go out in Adelaide.” But if there’s anything to take away from Gather Sounds Night Two, it’s that Bad//Dreems have given a frankly staggering amount to the community, and tonight is no different. It’s rare to see a gig so moving, so emotionally charged and so bound up in mutual admiration, that even the inevitable 'That’s-Showbiz-Baby'-esque challenges only serve to emphasise how well-practised and impressive the band are.
When I see Marwe sidestage after the show, he is fielding warm embraces from fans and friends with shimmering tears in his eyes. I’m about to leave, but I stop him and give him a quick hug.
“Beautiful. Incredible. Human,” is all I have to say before I go. As I’m leaving, I think back to something he said to me earlier in the night, when he was explaining why he was happy to put things on ice: “We had something to say, and we said it.”
I hope that Bad//Dreems can look back at their career fulfilled in the knowledge that we were always right there listening, attention piqued, feeling the warmth of the fire they were lighting underneath us all.
Want more pics of the gig? Check out our full photo gallery here.
