The floor at Manning Bar is already sticky underfoot as the room fills, there’s a hum of anticipation bouncing off low ceilings and scuffed speakers. It feels like the right place for a band whose biggest song has always belonged to outsiders, bedrooms, and back rooms rather than pristine arenas. Tonight is about memory, noise, and a shared understanding that some songs never really leave you.
Local support Purple Disturbance kick things off with a set that leans into volume and grit, warming the room quickly. Lead singer Thomas Downes, throws himself around the stage with little regard for self-preservation. I recognise him from the Viagra Boys gigs a few nights ago-he was on the barrier and engaged in banter with Sebastian Murphy.
Thomas Nicholas follows-yes that Thomas Nicholas, who played the lead role as Kevin Meyers in the American Pie film series. His band is tight and the crowd is engaged as he sprints through his catalogue which is packed with hooks and memories, sitting comfortably between earnest and unruly.
By the time Wheatus step on stage, the room has closed in on itself, bodies packed tight and voices already rising in anticipation. Frontman Brendan B. Brown appears relaxed and assured, flanked by three backing vocalists alongside keys, drums and bass, the band moving with the ease of musicians who have spent years refining this set on the road. While the self-titled debut is the backbone of the night, it isn’t delivered in strict sequence. Instead, Brown opens the floor to requests, shaping the set in conversation with the crowd. An especially vocal call sends the band straight into ‘Leroy’, before they weave freely through the album’s songs. Along the way, their cover of Erasure’s ‘A Little Respect’ earns a particularly warm reception, followed by unexpected detours into ‘My Girl’ and Green Day’s ‘Basket Case’. Each chorus lands not as a nostalgia exercise but as something still active and present, songs that continue to make sense in the here and now. Matthew Milligan, meanwhile, patrols the stage with barely contained energy, clearly enjoying every second. Teenage Dirtbag inevitably arrives to a roar, but it doesn’t dominate the night, instead sitting comfortably among songs built on awkwardness, longing and humour, delivered with the same unguarded sincerity that has carried them this far.
There’s something quietly remarkable about watching a room full of people sing along to a song written 25 years ago, not because it’s gone viral, but because it still fits. The TikTok resurgence may have carried Teenage Dirtbag to a new generation, but tonight proves it didn’t need saving. It just needed space, volume, and a crowd willing to yell every word back.
The tour continues across Australia and NZ, tickets HERE.
Images and words Deb Pelser.
