Review: Christian Stanger
I first heard PUP somewhere between the Valley and the Gold Coast, driving home from a Smith Street Band gig and buzzing in the aftermath. A mate visiting from Canada gave me a list of his favourite new bands. He took the AUX cord and introduced me to ‘DVP’, the fully unhinged, frenetic punk anthem that felt like it was dragged out of my subconscious musical longings. And now, 9 years later, the loop closes and I’m standing in the Princess Theatre to tell you, the chaos feels even more compelling in person.
Chaos, as it turns out, is best served on a Friday night. Knocking off work, tossing on a black t-shirt (as is the style), throwing back a responsible amount of booze and blowing off steam with 900 strangers. Such is the mood at the Princess Theatre tonight. A tinderbox full of punks already half-imagining the first circle pit forming and ready to haul each other out when it goes sideways.
Teenage Joans turn up the volts with all that early-20s energy. The kind you can’t fake, and the kind a bloke like me ran out of years ago. Behind the kit, Thalia Borgs is a grinning, sweetly singing metronome, hitting the skins with loose-wristed precision and chiming in with semi-regular vocal contributions. Meanwhile, Cahli Blakers fleets effortlessly between hard-edged, toneful rasps and sweet high notes, running laps of the stage to show off her guitar chops, almost forgetting where she is, only to dart back to the microphone just in time for the chorus. ‘Superglue’ hits early and pulls the crowd into a singalong; from then on, with the crowd onside, it’s like the kind of headline show these two are used to. Put them on the shortlist for, I dunno, Foo Fighters support slots when they’re up for the next tour (Note: no insider knowledge here, just a hunch).
Forty-five minutes is a long time to wait with the floor only getting stickier, and those aforementioned punks in the pit have nothing to do but make the circle bigger in their minds. With five minutes to go, steam is rising off the bodies crammed together down front and people are getting restless in that good kind of dangerous way, just as vocalist and guitarist Stefan Babcock is spotted side-stage, the lights go down, and things kick off.
If you were a Canadian punk band with a reputation for self-loathing and a playful brand of depression, what would you open with? ‘No Hope’ is the only answer. The reaction is pure release like it could have been any of a dozen songs. Then it’s straight into ‘Olive Garden’, the crowd acquiring their choral chops like a beer-soaked choir.
For a band whose subject matter tilts toward the bleak and nihilistic, the atmosphere is comfortingly like a warm hug. The atmosphere for such a bleak, even nihilistic band is one of catharsis. The mindset of “I guess the world couldn’t get much worse, might as well throw my body around and connect with my friends”… even if that means occasionally knocking the wind out of a reviewer minding his own business.
PUP have got the science of melody down like a secret handshake. The gang vocals are effortless, but the trick is to have the crowd buy in and sing along. There’s plenty of that tonight. What some bands might take entire careers to perfect, in the last decade, PUP probably have ten songs that carve themselves deep into muscle memory. From ‘Sleep In The Heat’, ‘Morbid Stuff’, ‘Kids’, and the more recent heaviness of ‘Paranoid’, it’s unforced, unruly and the messy, sweaty sense of community those songs spark, that sticks with you long after you’ve walked out the doors.
The one-two punch of ‘If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will’ and ‘DVP’ kicks off a frenzy, and then ‘Hunger For Death’ slides in as the perfect antidote as Stefan Babcock spits, “fuck everyone on this planet, except for you” with the crowd singing it back at him.
Refusing an encore because, as guitarist Steve Sladkowski puts it, “where are we going to go?” Fair point to be made moments prior to Babcock throwing himself into the crowd after ‘Old Wounds’ takes hold, rolling over bodies and continuing to scream the verses. This wilful abandon of inhibitions is what tonight calls for, a weekend gig, a ritual in a bleak world, where the joyful collapse of PUP somehow makes it brighter.
PUP
AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 2025 TOUR
Saturday 9 August
Metro Theatre (18+) Sydney, NSW
Sunday 10 August
Northcote Theatre (18+) Melbourne, VIC
Tuesday 12 August
Hindley Street Music Hall (18+) Adelaide, SA
Thursday 14 August
Magnet House (18+) Perth, WA
Tickets available via Destroy All Lines
