Features
Total Attack: Chaos In Brisvegas
By Tim Scott
On the eve of DIY punk festival Total Attack, TIM SCOTT talks to co-organiser Will Learmouth, as well as members of Straightjacket Nation and Sick People, about the origins of the event, championing local hardcore and balancing the old with the new.
Black-clad punks from across Australia will descend on Brisbane this weekend as part of Total Attack, a three-day DIY festival showcasing some of country's best hardcore and punk bands including Straightjacket Nation, Teargas, Kromosom, Useless Children, Death Cage, Shackles and Nazi Dentist. Now in its second year, the event is held over a number of venues across the city, taking inspiration from Austin Texas' Chaos in Tejas and Victoria's Such Is Life festivals.
Will Learmouth
Co-organiser, Total Attack
[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.]
What's the history of Total Attack?
The first Total Attack happened in November 2011 at Between the Walls and the Beetle Bar. It was organised by Jane [McKellar, Heroin SS] with a little help from myself on the day. I believe that several bands asked to come up around the same time so she decided to turn it into a festival. This year we decided to combine our interstate and local contacts and organise it together to make it as big as possible.
Chaos in Tejas and Such Is Life are obvious influences.
Certainly. Such is Life was the first proper punk/DIY festival in Australia that we attended, although Chaos in Tejas has a more specific influence on the logistical side of things. I played 2011's Chaos in Tejas and was impressed with the way everything was managed, so we're trying out a few of their methods things like three-day passes, a multi inner-city venue format, professional sound and gear at shows, etc.
How important was it to have all ages shows as part of the fest?
I don't want to appear patronising to underage people but I think it's very important for them to see and hear bands from different cities and genres. A lot of the time younger people seem to focus on their own scene, making things very closed off and segmented. Also the festival is going to be fun as shit and everyone should be able to enjoy that.
You've combined some of the bigger names such as Straightjacket Nation, Kromosom and Teargas with newer bands. Was it hard to find a balance between old and new?
I'm in Teargas and through travelling interstate for shows and helping other bands out when they are in Brisbane, Jane and I have developed friendships with most of the people that are playing. This makes it pretty easy to convince them to come up for a festival. It wasn't so much a case of balancing old and new or genres as a case of who is available and how well bands mix with each other. We've tried to make the lineups diverse, while making sure the transition between genres is still smooth.
It's great to see a fest such as this taking place in Brisbane. What is the scene like?
The scene here is like any other larger city I suppose - there are peaks and troughs. During the peaks there are loads of venues, new bands, high attendance at shows and motivated people and a general buzz or excitement. During a trough, bands will be sick of playing shows, people get tired of so many things happening every weekend so stop turning up, and venues either get shut down or decide that they'd rather be a dance club. I think at the moment, we're on the way back up to a peak. Some of the more active bands at the moment include Sick People, Heroin SS, Short Life, First Failure, Undead Apes, Last Chaos, Deathkrvsh, Common Enemy. There are plenty more that I've missed.
Emily Jans
Straightjacket Nation
What are your thoughts on Total Attack?
It’s an awesome way to get heaps of bands and people together in the one place. You get to check out new bands, see old favourites and have a good weekend of hanging out and partying. Over the years we’ve played a lot of these sorts of festivals. In Australia: Such is Life (Melbourne), Bella Donna (Brisbane) and overseas Chaos in Tejas (Austin, TX), Femme Fest (Kuala Lumpur) and Hardcore Fest (Warsaw, Poland).
You’ve been playing in hardcore bands for a number of years. SJN has toured a lot. What do you think of some of the younger hardcore bands now? Any on the Total Attack lineup you are keen to see or would recommend?
I think the standard of music in Australia is often well above that in America or Europe – even for bands that are just starting out. Touring overseas on multiple occasions really highlighted the number of solid bands in Australia. Even the not-so-popular ones are still generally good at what they’re playing and good to have on a bill. I’m keen to check out Sick People who I missed when they played in Melbourne. Also I’m keen to check out bands I haven’t heard of like First Failure, who have a cool logo, Undead Apes and Evil Ways.
You are considered some of the “elders” in the scene and lot of kids look up to SJN, Extortion, Mindsnare and Pisschrist. Did you have any similar bands to look to when you first started?
For sure, in fact personally, one of those bands was Mindsnare! I remember Beltsie (Mindsnare’s guitarist) helped me sneak into [defunct Melbourne venue] The Arthouse when I was 15 years old to see Mindsnare and a bunch of other bands. For SJN though, when we actually started we weren’t looking to Australian bands for inspiration. We had played in similar bands in the past (most notably Dave’s old band, Far Left Limit) and were actually listening to a lot of American hardcore bands from the early 1980s and just really wanted to play that kind of snotty, teenage angst kinda hardcore punk.
Some people were a little surprised by the aggression at a recent Royal Headache/Straightjacket Nation show at the Gasometer. Would you say this is typical of a hardcore show?
Pretty much. [Laughs] It's pretty typical of a good SJN show. I think Dan [Stewart, Straightjacket Nation vocalist] just pushes his limits and brings a certain element of animalism out in people. He puts himself completely into it and often gets totally fucked up by either himself or others. He even pushes himself when we don’t have a crowd reaction like that. It’s just how we play as a band. The rest of us are also pushing really hard. Most of the time I’m sweating so much that I feel like I’ve just taken a shower fully clothed and Dave [Kovess] and Al [Montfort] also put everything into it so I think that just comes through and people sometimes get out of hand. We like it that way. We’ve always liked an element of not knowing what’s going to happen next at our gigs so I’m glad that almost eight years on that’s still an aspect of our live shows.
Rick Girvan
Sick People
What does something like Total Attack do for Aussie hardcore and punk?
Wonders, absolute wonders. A DIY hardcore punk festival that isn't over saturated by bands deemed good by the masses? How can you go wrong? Things like this are great mixes and stepping stones for people to expand their tastes, open their eyes to takes on punk they've never even heard before or maybe not. Some people are just plain stupid.
Sick People seem influenced as much by early Aussie hardcore as you are by US stuff. Do you think more bands are looking to the Australian scene?
It's definitely not enough and it needs to pick up. There's too many pansies who don't realise what they are missing out on. You have to stop being listeners of punk and actually be a punk. Australian hardcore is crucial to this band. People at the moment are really hugging the nuts of all that '77 Aussie punk crap, which is sick, but it's only because Maximum Rocknroll are shitting their pants every time R.I.P Society puts out a new record. If you take your time to learn about the kinds of bands Australia produced in the ’80s and ’90s … you will hear some of the most unique bands ever from the likes of Civil Dissident, Death Sentence, Massappeal and G.A.S.H in the ’80s to Magnacite, Toe To Toe, Dream Killers, A.V.O and all the more in the ’90s. That's barely even skimming the top of what's out there.
What's it like being a hardcore band in Brisbane? Is the city and the people as conservative as it has known to be in the past?
Brisbane right now is awesome, I love it. More kids getting knee deep into hardcore, unable to get enough, starting lots of cool bands and having lots of fun at shows. I'd easily rate a good Brisbane show topping a show in any other city. As for the city and its people – it’s so-so. There's enough to hate and enough to love about it.
Of your songs what is the best that represents the band?
'Back On The Map'. Australian hardcore used to be recognised, respected and represented worldwide back in the ’80s and ’90s. Pushead put Civil Dissident on a few of his compilations. Vicious Circle had records released through UKHC label Children Of The Revolution. AVO, Toe To Toe, WWXXIV, ROCKS, Blitz Babies all saw releases from Kangaroo Records in the Netherlands; Massappeal toured with D.R.I Civil Dissident tour the States; and Blitz Babies did Europe and The Hard-Ons did multiple world tours. I could go on but the basic idea was that in the ’80s and ’90s Aussie hardcore was a threat. It was a player in the game among all bands the world over.
This song is an ode to those times and a statement against those that make it so Australia is represented poorly by big core bands, but most of all it's putting it straight up and clear that things are on the right path. As the title says, we're “back on the map”, just look at the calibre of bands we've got at the moment and the ones that are even getting to tour overseas.
[Historical embedded media is withheld pending rights review.]+