LIVE: DAVE WARNER’S FROM THE SUBURBS – Perth | Boorloo, 24 October 2026

LIVE: DAVE WARNER’S FROM THE SUBURBS – Perth | Boorloo, 24 October 2026
The Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

To some, Dave Warner & his band From The Suburbs are nothing more than a footnote in the history of Australian rock n’ roll – but tonight, celebrating fifty years since the first incarnation of that outfit, the glorious Astor Theatre is practically full of the faithful to celebrate what might be the last of many visits by the ex-local Boy from Bicton.

Back in 1976 the vast majority of Australian bands were bending over backwards to sound American or British – not Warner and The Suburbs, though. They revelled in songs about local culture and sung them proudly in an Aussie accent, remained staunchly independent, and amassed an impressive and fervent following around the country (not to mention garnering praise from the likes of Bob Dylan and Kim Fowley).

Skyhooks had big success around the country ploughing a not dissimilar furrow, though Warner didn’t feel the need to dress in outlandish costumes – he’d already done that with his first band Pus (arguable Australia’s first ever punk outfit) for the year or two prior to The Suburbs, singing outrageous songs (several of which would morph into Suburbs favourites) in his persona as frontman Grim Reaper.

This show – the last in a short run around the country for the band’s quinquagenary – is a special one. Not only are there two sets of favourites spanning his entire career, featuring as many original band members he could rustle up, but for the first time in fifty years there’s an onstage reunion of the surviving original members of Pus.

The night starts, fittingly, with The Monster’s Back, one of his ‘talking songs’ which far predated rap, during which he launches into one of his legendary diatribes, railing against Sydney rock historians who have “no fucking idea what’s happening on this side of the country.”

Early tracks Lonely Bar Room Crawler, with it’s jazzy ivory tickling courtesy of Phil Bennett, and My Name Is Silver, lead into the Beach Boys pastiche of Sidewalk Surfin’, the band – including guitarists Tony Durant and Sam Musca, bass player Haydn Pickersgill, drummer Lloyd Gyi and wife Nicole Warner providing backing vocals – tighter than a boy scout’s knot.

Band members swap out from time to time: Phil Bailey takes over on bass, Paul Noonan subbing for him later on, Howie Johnstone moves in on the drum kit, Dick Haynes (ex-Loaded Dice) helps Mrs W on backing vocals, and more; whilst most of the dustiest corners of Warner’s songwriting closet are explored: the title track of his Elvis musical theatre show The King And Me, Kiss & Tell and Assassin from 1995’s Surplus & Dearth album, the slinky lounge vibe of Last Night Jim Morrison Came To My Window from 2017’s When.

However, it’s mostly the more well-known tracks from the first four Suburbs/Warner albums which get people on their feet and singing along: the classic homesick ballad A Million Miles From Home and Bicton V Brooklyn providing highlights in the first half.

A reunion of some of the surviving Pus members including Michael Feeney, Nick Geronimus, Jim Fisher, Bailey & Bennett takes us into the intermission, with The Fugs’ Slum Goddess, the raw punk-before-punk of Throbbing Knob, Hot Crotch and Girls Wank – all dating back to 1974/75 – delivering scalding guitar and scathing attitude.

The second act delivers mostly favourites – the irrepressible novelty of Kangaroo Hop, Wimbledon, the neo-rockabilly of Car Park, their cover of The Troggs’ Yella In Me and another talking song celebrating suburban life, Half Time At The Football.

More recent single – half written in the early 1970’s but not finished and released until 2023 – Ode To Ochs makes a rare appearance, as does We Want A Kid from When, as well as classic favourites Convict Streak, Suburban Rock, Joey Black and Nothing To Lose.

This is a celebration not only of the band but of Warner’s journey as a songwriter, and his songs always work best when he’s “holding a mirror up to society” – even though that sometimes makes them want to smash the mirror, as he explains introducing Convict Streak, with its less-than-woke lyrics.

Crammed full of cultural references direct from the Australian suburbs of the 1970s, the insight and satire in Warner’s social commentary songs have barely aged at all: look at the tale of violent hood Joey Black railing against the gentrification of his childhood suburbs and wanting to make it rich so he can “bring back all my friends, and these streets will ring to violence once again,” Convict Streak’s embracing and assimilating the stereotypes of European immigration into our own multicultural society, or the more recent I’m On Facebook But Where’s My Friends, bemoaning the fake sociality of (un)social media.

The main set finishes with two of Warner’s most well known tracks in Nothing To Lose and Suburban Boy, the crowd as raucous by this point as the band themselves.

Testament to Warner’s extensive catalogue (his new book featuring lyrics to almost all the nearly 500-ish songs he’s written is on sale at the merch stand) there’s at least a handful of songs it would have been great to hear again which didn’t make the cut tonight, but there was really only ever one choice for the encore: Warner’s own magnum opus and title track of his debut album, Mug’s Game. The packed house revelled in the updated tales of favourite characters Zongo (now with three kids, all wasters like their dad), Robert (who’s now curating a pretentious art installation at the Guggenheim) and – as beloved as any characters in Warner’s many crime novels – Derek & Sandra (who personify all of our successes and failures of long gone Friday nights drinking in pubs and searching for a partner for life, or overnight).

Will the success of this tour make those Sydney rock historians realise the significance of Warner’s songwriting and put him back in the spotlight of musical history where he belongs?

It’s unlikely – but perhaps it’s enough to know that fifty years on he and The Suburbs (none of whom are spring chickens any more) can still almost fill this beautiful theatre – in seated mode, a far cry from the shoulder-to-shoulder beer barns he used to play – with fans who know every word and aren’t afraid to sing them loudly. No matter what rock historians do (or don’t) say about Warner, to quote one of his songs, they can’t take this night away from him.

A triumph.

Set 1:

The Monster’s Back
Lonely Bar Room Crawler
My Name Is Silver
Sidewalk Surfin’
I’m On Facebook But Where’s My Friends
The King And Me
Kiss & Tell
Assassin
Jim Morrison
John Arlott Makes Me Chuckle
Million Miles From Home
Bicton V Brooklyn
Slum Goddess
Throbbing Knob
Hot Crotch
Girls Wank

Set 2:

Kangaroo Hop
Wimbledon
Australian Heat
Car Park
Ode To Ochs
African Summer
Yella In Me
Half Time At The Football
Convict Streak
Suburban Rock
Joey Black
We Want A Kid
Nothing To Lose
Suburban Boy

Encore:

Mug’s Game

Category: Live Reviews