:: Regurgitator - Live at the Corner Hotel, Richmond - August 04

By: Adrian Ringin

I was anticipating this gig for a couple of reasons – first, I’d never seen Regurgitator live, but like most Triple J listeners of the 90s, I’d heard quite a bit of them. Second, they will soon be spending weeks on end in a bubble in Federation Square putting together their new album, so this would be a good chance to get an early peek at some new material.

I turned up to the Corner just before the “gurge” were due to play, and the place was packed - the lead in tracks before Regurgitator hit the stage were NWA’s classic ‘F**k Tha Police’ and the more recent ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem - an apt intro for the nights set. This was skewed towards Regurgitator’s hip-hop oriented songs, or, as Quan called them, pap - pop meets rap. Continuing the rap theme, Quan found the time to engage in a rap-battle with local boy Spod, who had been one of the opening acts.

In the course of their hour on the stage, Quan, Ben, and their current drummer Pete Kostic worked through a number of new songs, including Bong In My Eye, the new single, and an anti-Bush song, something that seems like it is almost mandatory in rock these days. To the crowds delight, they also worked through a substantial amount of older material, including most of Unit – although, perhaps not wanting to tempt fate while currently testing out new material, they gave ‘I like your old stuff better than your new stuff’ a miss. The moshpit was very enthusiastic, and at the end of their hour on stage, they finished triumphantly on ‘Kung Fu Sing’ it was going completely nuts.

In short, the moshpit was warm and inviting, the music was pumping – it was a lot of fun, and a nice little taste of things to come. The “gurge” are still going strong, now it just remains to be seen what kind of spectacle they will make of themselves at Federation Square over September, and what will come out at the end. My bet is on some decent pap.