Magic Dirt Review

By Jessie Parry

I don’t know whether it was the bitter cold, Olympic fever, or mid-week stress, but something kept the punters away from the magic dirt show at UniBar last Wednesday. Which is a shame because the veteran Australian rockers showed they’ve still got their unique garage punk flair that saw them burst into the Australian music scene sixteen years ago.

The Pink Fits opened for the dirt, and got the small crowd to their feet, within seconds of their opening riff. With a sound that I heard likened to Iggy and the Stooges on steroids, the Pink fits produced some fast paced catchy tunes. And, even with the complementary UniBar ear plugs there was no denying that these guys had a good deal of sound behind them.

The Dirt, led by Adalita and her haunting vocals opened with ‘Feels like a demon’ a single from their former album ‘Snow White’. The Dirt with their brooding guitar and distortion shared with us several songs off the new album which is a return to their earlier style. If you went to this gig expecting to hear their more Indie guitar pop singles such as ‘watch out boys’ and ‘plastic loveless letter’ you may have left disappointed. However the Dirt proved that they are a band that are not afraid to experiment with their sound. Their latest album ‘Girl’ is a lot heavier than more recent albums, and you can tell they are relishing the freedom of being independent artists, free from industry pressures.