A Night of Old School Punk from Queensland’s Finest - The Chats, 26 songs in under an hour!

★★★★☆ (4/5)

THE CHATS PERFORMING AT NEWCASTLE’S NX
PHOTOCREDIT: JOHN HAYHURST

The Chats remain as possibly the finest no nonsense punk bands to emerge from the Aussie underground pub circuit to tour the world. Their breakout anthem “Smoko” in 2017 launched this young band out of Australia and it feels like they have been touring ever since.

Tonight I’m in the ‘Toon’ at the refurbed NX (formerly the O2 Academy) its a great venue and the biggest I’ve ever seen The Chats play, but first the supports, who both did a short half hour set each.

Rifle, a young(ish) punk band from London, delivered a performance that perfectly encapsulated the spirit of punk rock. With their raw energy and confrontational edge, vocalist Max jumped around shouting in his red jumper, which lasted about 6 minutes before he overheated and it came off for the trademark white vest underneath.

Their set was an unrelenting barrage of furious originals from their two EPs “Holloway Demos” and “Under Two Flags”. Max, exuding charisma, spent much of the gig in the pit, tracks like “44” and “The Flag” stood out as highlights, brimming with frustration and defiance. Although, other than the frontman, the rest of the band were fairly non de-script and didn’t move about too much.

The Prize were a different animal all together. Less punk and more 70s/ early 80s guitar based power pop. With lead vocals primarily shared between gorgeous smiley drummer Nadine Muller and guitarist Carey Paterson, this five-piece from Melbourne played some cracking tunes from their “Wrong Side Of Town” EP. In stark contrast to Rifle, there was melody, harmonies and sunshine coming from the stage along with some powerful guitar based rock.

At 9:30pm The Chats nonchalantly walk on stage while the lights are still up and greet the Geordie fans who have massed in their thousands tonight.

There is chaos at the front as “Nambored” kicks off a massive 26 song setlist, that is spread out on two sheets of paper in front of bass player, singer and chief gurner Eamon Sandwith. Pints go flying in the air and several early stage divers make their presence known to security who quickly move into the pit at the front for a busy night ahead.

In a scene not seen since the bygone days of proper punk in the mid 70’s, this Aussie 3-piece rattle through 26 songs in just under an hour, each one is sub 3 minutes and little time in between for banter other than to call everyone a c*nt and to have a drink.

No “Smoko” breaks tonight, and in a Ramones like fashion Matt Boggis on drums can do the 1-2-3-4 and it could break into anything after that. The biggest surprise of the night is that Eamon Sandwith has thankfully lost last years mullet, gone for a short bowl cut instead, but with his trademark gurning growl and occasional pogo we know it’s definitely him.

They play everything at 100 mph and yet the crowd are shouting back every word, surprised there was no “Bus Money” or “AC/DC CD” tonight but I guess they have to drop some of the oldies in favour of newer music from the latest album, such as "The Kids Need Guns", "Heatstroke", and "Panic Attack", which blended nicely with their older stuff.

The one-two of “Identity Theft” and “Smoko” though caused more chaos as streams of people poured over the barrier.

They don’t do encores, “We don’t do the one more song bullshit” this is a no nonsense wham bam punk show and after “Better Than You” we have a cover and bizarrely it’s KISS’s “Rock and Roll All Nite” done in a punk style, and then “Pub Feed” closes the show.

Done and on to the next one, if you get the chance and want to see a proper 100mph punk show with no breaks then you have to see this band. They will be back over this way again for the Leeds/Reading festival in 2025.