The Dead Kennedys returned to Australia for the first time in seven years, taking over Sydney’s Metro Theatre for a cathartic night of politically charged punk and satire.
Legendary punk icons Dead Kennedys put on a stellar show at Sydney’s Metro Theatre Saturday night. It had been seven years since Sydney had been graced by the ferocious energy of a Dead Kennedy’s show, and neither the band nor the crowd were about to take that for granted.
The tour coincided with the 45th anniversary of their debut studio album Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables, which featured one of their most recognised tracks, ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ (which the band would perform during its first encore).
Opening for the Dead Kennedy’s were Newcastle heavyweights Boudicca, who delivered their own blend of hardcore punk with a ferocious energy, setting the tone perfectly for the night.
Before kicking off the show, guitarists ‘East Bay’ Ray Pepperell and ‘Klaus Flouride’ aka Geoffrey Lyall came onto the stage to check their guitars, lightening the mood and setting the crowd up for a night equal parts blistering heavy and hilarious. Quickly, the band would take the stage, launching into ‘Forward to Death’. Within moments, the band had the venue shaking.
Between songs, vocalist Skip Greer would take a moment to address the crowd, providing social commentary between tracks. Ever the satirists, the band took to reworking their song ‘MTV Get Off The Air’, which they retitled ‘MP3 Get Off the Web’ in 2010, to a new iteration, criticising TikTok and AI.
After exploding into their classic track ‘Jock-O-Rama’ (after a small bit of joking about Australia’s own Grand Final weekend), Greer would stop the band to teach the audience its famous chant.
Closing their main set with ‘California Über Alles’, Greer would joke to the audience, “our manager says we have to leave now”, before departing the stage for a brief moment for an expected encore (which the band would acknowledge with their on-brand tongue-in-cheek humour).
The group’s encore would open with ‘Bleed For Me’, which featured a surprisingly earnest rendition of Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’, which the audience delighted in.
After everyone had been covered in beer, sweat and shoe marks from body surfers, the Dead Kennedys wrapped the night with their iconic cover of Viva Las Vegas, followed by ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ and ‘Chemical Warfare’.
While the band are just celebrating their 40th anniversary, and had taken a seven-year gap between touring Australia, everyone in the crowd, both young and old, left delighted, their voices hoarse after screaming the band’s lyrics back at them throughout the night.
You can check out the full gallery of pictures from the night taken by Mitchell Anderson on film below.
Dead Kennedys @ Metro Theatre Sydney Gallery
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