Rollerball, Winterun, Peeping Tom
Green Room, Oct 22nd 2005

BEAT MAGAZINE

The rock was already rumbling as I descended into the Green Room and it didn’t let up until I hit the street again some five hours later. Peeping Tom were first on and I can’t say enough good things about them. If you haven’t caught Peeping Tom yet, you have to go RIGHT NOW! This band is hot! With epic tunes that sit somewhere between Kyuss and Jimi Hendrix (win/win either way you look at it) Peeping Tom had heads spinning over an otherwise fairly motionless crowd – apart from the odd jaw dropping to the floor every few tracks. It’s all thumping drums, dirty riffs and a mesmerising wall-of-noise.

Then Winterun rode their new album Welcome To…. right onto the stage, opening with Break The Black Box and not letting up until everyone in the place had caught the nod. Striding through a few tracks from the new album, including Sucker For Punishment and Downdriver, a couple of older songs and a new one, Winterun are competent musicians and their tunes are best described as ‘chunker’. They proved just the band to speed things up a notch, gathering momentum throughout their set between Peeping Tom and Rollerball.

By the time Rollerball hit the stage the crowd were well and truly rocking (alright, everyone was hammered) and all the Qld boys really had to do was strike a chord and people would be moving. But they played for a good hour before having a short break and coming back for a half-hour encore. Covering tracks from the new EP and a range of material from their collection, including my favourite Lifetime, the singer’s raspy, Dave Larkin/Rod Stewart style vocals (but deeper) fused with some awesome guitar work, strong bass lines (played down by the cowboy hat/boot toting bass player) and a completely expressionless drummer with a gnome beard and some stubby shorts.
Overall, all three bands delivered strong sets, the crowd soaked it up almost as fast as they were soaking up the beer, rhythm sections rumbled, voices wailed and guitar riffs broke it all up. It was a reminder not to underestimate the power (and sex appeal!) of unfashionable stoner rockers wielding guitars. Whilst rock ‘n’ roll might be ‘in’ right now, these guys prove that the thundering underbelly is still dirty and still raw, and still far better than any of their lightweight counterparts.

Phillipa Krawberry

Rollerball, Winterun, Peeping Tom
Green Room, Oct 22nd 2005

INPRESS MAGAZINE 

…Off the back of a show in Warnambool, Winterun are pumping on full throttle as they drag the crowd into a dingy back alley for some pulse-pounding rawk and questionable shenanigans – everyone’s up da front for a dose of quirky grooves, cranking progessions and widdly-waddly lead.  The vocals hark back to a far more savage Eddie Vedder and much akin to Pearl Jam, it’s energetic stuff that satisfies a beer-drenched crowd…. 

Toby McCasker