CRY CLUB CHARM A HOME CROWD AT THEIR FINAL GIG OF 'FOR YOUR HEALTH' TOUR

The smell of fresh hair-dye and leather jackets is prominent as the crowd packs into the sold out final show of Cry Club’s triumphant headlining tour for Australian audiences with ‘For Your Health’.

Shotkickers, a thriving Thornbury local live-music venue, is pumping, struggling to fit all the fans already decked out in t-shirts, patch jackets, and vibrant mohawks. 

Following their successful opening for The Darkness during their Australian 2024 tour, and an EU Tour for their album ‘Spite will Save Me’, the queer bubblegum-punk duo Cry Club has returned to their old stomping ground with an electrifying and invigorating final performance of the tour.

Expertly picked openers set the mood with local Melbourne bands Millie Luby and the HRT BKKRs and Public Figures. Millie Luby brought a fun, magnetic presence and an impressively tight jam style band (plus features from both saxophone and a keytar).

Their soft-rock alternative sound pays homage to great 80s pop-rock, jazz-y piano, and delicious hints of the Doobie Brothers style yacht rock. 

Where Millie Luby and the HRT BKKRs warmed the crowd to the charming, witty, and light-hearted pop side of Cry Club, Public Figures brought the hardcore rock and roll edge. 

Public Figures had an explosive introduction to the crowd and commanded the stage with a fiery and captivating outpouring of energy (despite this gig being their second of the day).

Powerful vocals matched the searing guitars, heart rattling drums and passionate lyrics. The band would fit right in amongst the 70s New York punk scene, or alongside modern punk-rock idols Amyl and Sniffers and The Lambrini Girls. 

Finally, as the crowd squished and squeezed their way to the front of the bar, Cry Club took the stage to raucous cheers, electrifying the room with a new song and infectious energy. Decked out in sparkling red gloves, vocalist Heather Riley was astonishing in both stage presence and sound, their voice commanding the room and swooping up the audience in their characterful performance. 

Jono Tooke on guitar artfully managed the tightrope act Cry Club play balancing an 80s glam rock and hardcore sound. This is made even more evident with the duo’s recently released tracks, ‘High Voltage Anxiety’ and ‘For Your Health’. 

Grounding the duo with their confident, tight, and driving drums was Em Chen, Cry Club’s touring session drummer. Chen added a depth of sound and an additional groove that make Cry Club’s songs so addictive and enjoyable live. 

The duo frequently interacted with the crowd, creating recurring jokes with the audience. 

‘Hell Yeah!’ Tooke would shout after every song (scattered with the occasional ‘Fuck Yeah!’ if the crowd went particularly wild) to laughter, cheers, and a return chorus of ‘Hell Yeah’. 

Cry Club charmed a home crowd that was intimately familiar with their work, from their very first album ‘God I’m Such a Mess’, to their newest released track, ‘For Your Health’. The crowd could sing every word, and did. 

Funny, heartfelt, charismatic, electric, and most of all talented. Cry Club delivered with a set-list that hit every song a crowd may want to hear. From their Fortnite famous glam-rock song ‘Somehow (You Still Get to Me)’ that took them to the UK to old faithfuls like ‘DFTM’, and the beautifully introduced ‘Robert Smith’. 

‘Fuck Morrissey.’ Riley had screamed before the heady rocking guitar kicked into gear for ‘Robert Smith’s opening bars, sending the crowd screaming, laughing, and dancing once more. 

Referring of course to Robert Smith of The Cure’s longstanding (and many would argue completely justified) hatred of The Smith’s singer. 

Particularly touching was a moment in which Riley and Tooke introduced a brand new song, mid-way through their set, celebrating queer anger. In a room overflowing with love, passion, and diversity, Cry Club turned the lights on the audience as Riley delivered the line ‘people like me’.

The duo brought everyone together and turned the warm spotlight onto their community, their PREDOMINANTLY queer community, like they had been doing all night long.

‘If you’re queer and angry we love you.’ Heather Riley said passionately as they introduced the song. 

Throughout the crowd were people young and old, of all genders, sexualities, and abilities. In an uncommon occurrence for the band, Cry Club delivered a crowd-riling performance of Silverchair’s ‘Freak’, calling out to reclaim the song as a gay-trans anthem and it was embraced by the audience with full hearts and voices.

The set-list officially ended with the tours namesake song ‘For Your Health’, showcasing Shotkickers excellent sound, as the room throbbed with the pulsating rhythm and hypnotising vocals. 

Like all good band and audience relationships, we cheered for an encore (Heather Riley among us) and Cry Club delivered. Exactly as they had been all night - with an abundance of energy, passion, and whimsy. 

The lights on the stage dim, the bar’s booth seat turned merch table becomes swamped, Riley’s sibling and their sibling’s partner swap shirts for cash with eager audience members. Rogue stragglers listening just outside the large open bar window continue to wander past. 

The duo re-emerge and join the crowd, chatting, laughing, and clearly at home amongst the bustling Melbourne audience who turned out in droves for a Saturday night of top-tier queer, genre bending, bubblegum-punk.