The first all-ages show at The Sands Tavern in a long time was all for a great cause - raising funds and awareness for the Leukemia Foundation.

Arriving at soundcheck, I was alerted to the fact that the event was being held in the Main Bar (which was a surprise considering all this week the rumours around being that The Sands had closed the Main Bar to bands due to noise complaints and wouldn’t re-open until mid-August...turns out there was an exception to the rules, as long as the event finished up by 10pm).

Looking to be a very well-organised event, and nicely laid out, the promotion leading up the event was also well done, but the Sunshine Coast being the Sunshine Coast, it was a hit and miss affair.

Originally a four-band bill, whittled down to a three-band line-up due to City to Shoreline withdrawing, first band up was Sundaes Aren’t for Saturdays.

A nicer, mellower beginning for the event, and warmed the crowd up pretty well, the young muso’s showed a lot of talent and promise, and once exploring more original material, could be become a pretty dominant force in the Alt/Indie Rock genre.

Technical Symplicity were next up on the bill, and moved the night into a heavier realm which (eventually) got the crowd pumped and jumping with an energetic set featuring a mix of new and older material.

From the point of view of being on stage, I even spotted quite a few of the parents nodding their heads in time, and towards the end of the set a mini-mosh had started.

Headlining the event, Daylight has a Curfew finished the night. A mix of grunge/hard rock with a touch of GRRL rock vocals, for the talent they displayed it was hard to believe it was their first actual gig.

It was hard not to notice a few jitters, as would be expected from a first gig, notably some tuning issues towards the end of the set that brought the songs down a touch, but apart from that the material was worthy of raising the devil’s horns proudly.

Keep an eye on these kids.

Overall, it was disappointing to see a not-so-huge turn-out for this show, given the reason for holding it. Apparently the venue had 400 RSVPs for the event, but from what I saw would’ve only counted about 60 to 50 heads.

The show still raised some funds for the Leukemia Foundation, and Technical Symplicity donated some funds from the sale of their merchandise, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

Let’s just see if we can get more support for the next one (which there was talk of having).

 

Rooster.