Painters & Dockers gig with SCRBoys!

Sat 24 May 2025 - The Triffid - Brisbane Review written by Mark Chandler - journalist - photographer - 'BANDS OF BRISBANE' PHOTOS - CLICK HERE Last week I mentioned how I’d talked to a couple I met about some upcoming gigs and hey presto, they went to the first one at the Aussie Nash last weekend. Well then Hey Presto II (The Return of Hey Presto) they also attended the second gig, Painters and Dockers at The Triffid. Making me either the greatest Live Music sales person in town, or they want the credit cards I took from them back.

So The Triffid was up to its old tricks. Great venue, no parking. Sucks when you’re a punter. Double sucky when you’re lugging camera gear around. Doesn’t help that, for reasons I can’t fathom, Stratton St in Newstead is, for the most part, Loading Zone only. And two $120 fines in as many weeks forced me to review my “She’ll be right” parking policy. Which was really more a lose set of poorly thought through guidelines rather than an actual policy. But with car parked, gear loaded into the venue, camera set up, then it was time to eat. Damn The Triffid does a good burger, which by sitting in amongst the Sunny Coast Rude Boys, I managed to get for free because the boys just put everything on Mick Hughes’s tab. Nice!

Refreshed and refuelled, I took my place in the pit ready for the first band, Mick Medew and Ursula 4. Emboldened by my new “Talk to People” policy, again, more a ramshackle collection of half-baked ideas rather than a policy, I apologised to the two sisters I was about to sit in front of and asked which band they were here to see. “We’re here to see the Painters & Dockers” they said. “Are there other bands?” Apparently Dad had bought the tickets but he had to work that night, so they were sent into the front lines to represent the family as best they could. They were fully versed on everything Dockers, so clearly Dad had done a good job. “Well yeah” I said. “There’s the Sunny Coast Rude Boys, they’re a Ska band”. “A what?” they asked. Oh boy! Get the whiteboard out, this could take awhile. “And first up there’s Mick Medew and Ursula 4.” I said. “Who are they.” Now as it happened, Mick and Ursula had conveniently just walked on stage, so I said “Well, they are.” Hi Mick, Hi Ursula, who both gave generous but puzzled waves to two sisters who were already messaging their Dad.

And we’re off.

Mick Medew and Ursula 4 were sensational. Mick is one of those annoyingly talented bastards who seems to put in minimal effort, but gets maximum output, almost as if he’s playing two instruments. For someone how can’t hit a triangle without making it look like an octopus falling out of a tree, that’s really annoying. Great to see Ursula Border Collie Medew sing “Punk Grandma” Live, but their set was criminally short. I was waiting for my all time favourite “Another Girl, Another Planet” but sadly it wasn’t to be. So short was their set that I felt like David Bachrach. He’s the photographer who famously assumed that, following the epic two-hour speech given by Edward Everet, President Lincoln would similarly drone on for hours while delivering his Gettysburg Address. So no need to hurry. But the Gettysburg Address was famously very brief, consisting of only 271 words and lasting less than two minutes. Leaving Mr Bachrach scrabbling around desperately trying to set up his camera only to take one of the worst photos of an historical event ever. You had one job David! So like Mr Bachrach, I too was left scrambling around as Mr Medew said “Thank You and Goodnight.” Damn it! At least I didn’t miss the friggin Gettysburg Address, that would really suck!

The Sunny Coast Rude Boys.

Having dined out on Mick’s tab, I’d best be kind and say nice things. Not much of a stretch to be fair, they’re brilliant. I kept thinking about those two sisters seeing a proper Ska band in full flight for the first time. Like seeing The Blues Brothers movie for the very first time. How lucky were they! The SCRBs have all the basic ingredients of a great Ska band, a strong rhythm section, great vocals and a dynamic horn section and a kick arse drummer. But they also have the Secret Sauce that elevates them to a truely gourmet product. Fun. If you’re not having fun at a SCRB’s gig, then you’re heart has stopped. Mick Hughes is the super engaging front man, but everyone on stage, too many to mention, is having the time of their lives. They’re a band that I’m sure everyone in the audience would just love to go up and join. Join in the fun. And special mention to Alto Sax player Sive Hughes, who’s energy on stage could power a medium sized town.

The Painters and Dockers

Being a P&D fan is a bit like being a Freemason only without the secret handshake. And the word “Fan” seems oddly inadequate. Disciples. Yeah, disciple is better. Because when you tell people at the office that you’ve bought tickets to see Painters and Dockers, most stare back blankly, some think it’s a new musical, while others think it’s a euphemism. But there’s always one person who’ll scream from the other end of the building “You’re Going Home In The Back Of A Divvy Van” and race over to pour over the minutiae of every P&D song in excruciating detail. A shame that it’s like that, because for me, Painters and Dockers are one of Australia’s best bands, with some of the Australia’s best songs, they’re certainly one of Australia’s best Live bands and absolutely Australia’s most under appreciated bands. Thankfully they’re better known here in Brisbane, mostly thanks to the mighty 4ZZZ doing the heavy lifting again in regards to home grown music. The Dockers are humorous, political, clever, irreverent, cheeky and very tongue pokingly Australian. Well, Australian before we turned into a whingy bunch of greedy, complaining old wind bags.

So P&D mostly do originals with a few covers thrown in. And if you’re doing a cover, then why not get the original singer up on stage to sing it for you. Which is what they did with the Sunnyboys song, “Happy Man” when Jeremy Oxley appeared on stage. In a night of highlights, this was the highlightiest. Then Paulie Stewart invited the force of nature that is Jenny Pineapple onstage to sing the Saints classic “Know Your Product” followed by the one, the only (Thankfully) Chris Converse getting up to sing “Nude School.” Which has become a staple of their Brisbane shows. Now I’ve seen a few of these, and usually Mr Converse has enjoyed perhaps a few too many adult lemonades, as the great man himself would say. Perhaps to help get the courage to appear onstage in that bright yellow leotard. And the song ends up as word salad. But this time, he absolutely nailed it. He was belting it out like an old hand. It was fabulous. And on a stage full of extraordinary people, Converse is one of those “Giant’s Shoulders” that things are built on these days. What a legend. As is Paulie Stewart. Look up his story next time you're using Google. An amazing human being.

So apart from the brevity of the Mick Medew and Ursula 4 set, which I understood was necessary so we’d all get out on time, this was perhaps one of the best PunkFests I’d been to. And I’ve been to some pretty good PunkFests! Each band was legendary in it’s own right. Each were expert musicians who didn’t take themselves too seriously. And each band was just pure,100,000 amp entertainment that you couldn’t look away from, even for a moment. And apart from the horrible parking, The Triffid is one of my favourite venues with what I consider to be the best Live sound in Brissie and damn good food.

As I packed up I saw the two sisters I’d chatted with at the beginning of the night, heading toward the door. Both talking simultaneously and both texting away on their phones like they were killing ants. Hopefully telling their Dad about what he’d missed. And both had huge ear to ear smiles, almost as if they seen the Blues Brothers for the first time.