2022 Negative Waves

Negative Waves is brought to you by the friendly River Rocks team. The music festival's name comes from the seminal punk rock album title by BORED!, released in 1989. The main indoor stage at the Barwon Club Hotel, has now been labelled the Dave Thomas Stage of BORED! fame, who passed away in 2020. Dave Thomas was Geelong’s ‘Godfather of Punk Rock’ and was also a member of Magic Dirt. The main headlining band was a renewed and revitalised BORED! made up of past band members plus the inclusion of new members Claire Birchall and Mike Keane on vocal duties. So it was a real special day to celebrate the music of Dave Thomas.

BORED! started their exciting set with a dedication to past members. Highlight was made to John Nolan of Powder Monkeys fame, who with GOD's Tim Hemensley was also a member of BORED! Sadly, John Nolan passed away late last year and was suppose to be a part of this revival. BORED! first song was their classic, Feed The Dog. Which if you have seen The Meanies play anytime in the past decade, it has been their signature encore song, with Link Meanie going totally apeshit with his energetic onstage antics.

Due to the pandemic, there was a late minute shuffle of the lineup. HITS from BrisVegas were sidelined and unable to make it down to Geelong. Also Tiger By The Tail and SHOVE were also unable to perform. The final bill included: BORED!, Civic, Cosmic Psychos, Stiff Richards, Electric Purrs, Private Function, Rot TV, Ute Root, The Fckups, Swedish Magazines, Grindhouse, The Prize, Juliette Seizure and The Tremor-Dolls, Shanty Tramp, The Maggie Pills, Hotchkiss, Amba Fear and the welcome to country with Uncle Barry Gilson.

For me, it was an amazing day of catching up with old friends and photographing some brilliant bands. I thought I worked hard trying to photograph eighteen bands at NEGATIVE WAVES but Shannon Cannon takes the cake (and the beers) by performing in three different bands: Hotchkiss, Juliette Seizure and the Tremor-Dolls & Grindhouse. As she said to me, "three band....three riders".

The final three bands on the Spencer P. Jones outdoor stage (Private Function, Stiff Richards and Civic) totally went off. Having seen Private Function the weekend before totally slay the crowd at the 2022 Reclink Community Cup, I knew what to expect. NB: Please see my previous photo gallery here on GigBill. The most furious set would go to Stiff Richards but only be a bee's dick. I was so happy to see an array of new exciting bands playing including The Maggie Pills, Electic Purrs, Rot TV and The Prize. You can't go wrong seeing a bunch of my favourite bands hitting the stage such as the blokes you can trust, Cosmic Psychos, Grindhouse, Swedish Magazines, Ute Root, The Fckups and more.

Negative waves equals positive vibes in this little music fan's heart. A whole week later and I am still beaming looking at these colourful uncensored photographs. Before I forget, I also have a couple HD quality videos of BORED! performing below.