The crowd at the Enmore are pumped with anticipation tonight and when the lights dim, suddenly Wunderhorse are here. For the first time in Sydney, Jacob Slater and his band crash into the theatre with the same ragged immediacy that defined Midas, their bruising 2024 record. It’s the culmination of a journey that began in lockdown bedrooms and surf breaks in Newquay, where Slater, then a surf instructor moonlighting as a Sex Pistols actor in a TV miniseries, dreamed up the project almost as a joke. That joke has grown into one of the most vital guitar bands to come out of Britain in the last decade.
Earlier, Headsend primed the room with a dense, churning set that made the most of the Enmore’s acoustics. Their blend of grunge urgency and noise-driven catharsis set a perfect stage for what was to follow, and the band’s taut energy made it clear they’re more than just an opener—they’re a local force with a voice that demands attention.
Live, the promise of Midas becomes something heavier, sweatier, more combustible. Recorded at Minnesota’s Pachyderm Studios, the album carried the dirt-under-the-nails energy of In Utero and Rid of Me, and here it explodes in real time. Slater once said he wanted the record to sound like your face was pressed up against the amp—tonight, that fantasy comes true, a torrent of serrated riffs and vocals that teeter between fury and fragility.
The songs bite hard but there’s a melodic core that keeps the chaos addictive. You can feel why the band are now selling out their own tours and supporting Sam Fender in arenas: they’ve got that elusive combination of intimacy and scale. One moment, Slater’s lyrics coil inward, sung almost to himself; the next, the band detonate into widescreen choruses that could rattle stadium rafters.
By the end of the set, Wunderhorse have done what few newcomers manage: they’ve taken a room of first-time Sydney listeners and left them sounding like lifers.
The tour moves to Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane next, tickets HERE.
Images Deb Pelser
