It was a stormy night in the country and I was packing my Forklift Assassins CD’s and a sharpie into the camera bag while eagerly awaiting my forever gig buddy to return from work. I knew we would miss the first 3 bands but still insisted on going to the show.

The Journey

A 30 minute drive, mostly in the rain, and we had arrived at SKKY Bar. Parking was easy to find and just across the road from the venue, We ran across the road in the rain, took a minute to find the entrance and you could hear a band setting up or doing a bit of a soundcheck (it turned out to be IRIAK).

We had already missed Evil Business, Another Rotting Corpse and Identity Error so I’m not sure what type of crowd was around for the first part of the night but at this point I’m the brightest/weirdest looking punk in a room that feels a little empty with around 30 people.

I scanned the room for familiar faces, before long we were chatting with the friendly folks from Forklift Assassins. The only band on the lineup that we’ve seen before and the main reason I was so excited for the show. It turns out Mike has one of those yellow The Owen Guns shirts I was wearing.

The Show

The Melbourne duo, IRIAK put on a good show, I’d only heard one IRIAK song prior to the show and it was “Dystopia” a single released on bandcamp in 2022. Worth a listen, here’s a link. Dolph, the singer and string player, pulls off a great metal screams and the tub thumper Mike was an impressive drummer, between the two of them it was easy to hear the genre shifting in the metal sounding set.

We went out the front after the set, still stormy clouds but no rain, it wasn’t long before we heard another soundcheck happening and headed back in. As we headed in I noticed the flyer on the wall and asked the door bitch if they had seen them anywhere in town but they weren’t from Shepp.

As Forklift Assassins started up, you could hear an improvement in the mix. The band delivered a great set of punky stuff, I really appreciated the cover around the halfway point. Forklift Assassins were better at crowd interaction between songs, probably due to playing so frequently (did you read the event description ? it was hilarious). Their last song was a cover of “Ace of Spades” which felt like the perfect close to the night, they even offered up a mic on stage for anyone that wanted to join in (sadly, no takers).

After the set, I got Mike from Forklift Assassins to sign my copy of their first release. It felt fitting as when I had tried for a punk show all those years ago, it was one of those songs that they contributed to the Punx In Exile compilation.

We headed home pretty quick and I’d missed the first 3 bands but this was quality closure to a journey started back in 2018. Big thanks to Blind Greyhound Promotions, I’m pissed that I missed out on the first 3 Shep heavy music shows but I’m super keen for the next one.

Photos by Punktoria

#crannk #punktoria #blindgreyhoundpromotions #sheppresent