• The Belair Lip Bombs 14 March /2026 Freo Social
When I was in primary school I used to have dreams of going really fast. In the sixties our suburban sand dunes were paved with new bitumen hot mix. We built hill trollies with old lawn mower wheels and fanged down hills until our skin was bleeding with gravel rash.
We read Popular Mechanics magazine and made the designs for homemade skateboards with metal roller skate wheels. Hell on wheels. Until the arrival of the Belair Lipbomb – Faster Than Force polyurethane wheel with bearings!
Tonight at Freo Social the Melbourne Band The Belair Lip Bombs headlined a gig before their forthcoming extensive tour of the USA ( and Toronto).
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They open with Again And Again and they are faster than force (maybe not as fast as the Ramones who clocked 160 bpm but they are fast ). Another World at 2.36 mins is Ramonesque. Like The Back Of My Hand is slightly longer possibly because of the lyrical content…
… Like the sun in the morning
A piano falling out from the sky
I knew I was doomed when I saw you
And it hit me in the face like a pie…
Stay Or Go is pure Clash.
Charlie don’t surf but we think he should, The Lip Bombs don’t skate but we think they should. They are a fast band in formation. Maisie Everett on guitar and vocals, Mike on lead guitar, Jimmy on base and Dev on drums. Saltating between pub and stadium rock. Already understated Aussie icons.
They have that sunlit sound with just the menace of pummelling rock. A quiet-loud sound implying that they might just pummel at anytime. (See Maisie on bass with Clamm live in Athens at the death disco)
Thankfully Hey You only reaches mezo-pummel.
Lauded in the music press, live the Lip Bombs are the real deal. (Signed to Jack White’s Third Man Records) Maisie has vocals that defy categories. Pop, stadium rock, alt country, post punk, pure country and by her own admission “limerence rock ” aka yearn core. Her vocals can slur and sneer in perfect time with the wall of guitar. At the end of Hey You her “hey you you you” is as good an alliteration as the Boss’s “ooh-ooh- ooh “ in his song I’m On Fire. Just stunning.
Tonight both albums, Lush Life and Again merge into one. That’s not a criticism. It’s a Gen Z opus of a reply to Eric Burden and The Animals song When I Was Young.
They finish with romping swagger on Don’t Let Them Tell You. Maisie’s vocals swooning and yelping over the driving guitars and drums.
They return with absolute banger Say My Name. The mosh pit love it. It’s fast and furious.
It’s been one of the last chances to see a great young band on the cusp of a US tour. On the cusp of going vertical in every venue they play .
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