Gig Review: Downgirl + Acid Amora + T-Rex Autopsy at the Station Bar, Katoomba

Live Review: Downgirl, Acid Amora and T-Rex Autopsy at the Station Bar, Katoomba. May 27, 2023

by BRIAN GIFFIN

RISING Sydney punks Downgirl were the main attraction at Katoomba’s Station Bar this evening for the third leg of a series of shows featuring a mix of local Blue Mountains acts and one non-local one. It’s a concept devised by local entertainment promoter Retro Rehash that has proven particularly successful so far – tonight was no exception.

Despite the lack of an actual stage, the Station Bar is a hot venue that also does some of the best pizza you’ll find almost anywhere and the beer selection is healthy to say the least. During the summer the place often opens the door behind the bands to let the tunes pour out into the street, but tonight it was way too cold for that type of shenanigans.

Prog metallers T-Rex Autopsy warmed up the crowd with a set of music that was both starkly different from the other two bands but nonetheless complementary. Their mostly instrumental pieces featured alternate tunings, Eastern scales and tribal percussion, giving them a sound reminiscent of Alchemist sans the death metal aspects, and they seemed to be over far too quickly, just as the room was starting to get into it.

In the year or so they’ve been strutting the stage, Acid Amora have been making plenty of waves. Their grungy alternative rock pulls from a wide selection of sources and their songs are powerfully driven by the drumming of Holly de Lima Gracia, whose Death longie showed where her allegiances and influences lay. Singer Bec Smith presents a massive and soulful vocal style but her evident shyness pushes guitarist Samuel de Lima Gracia into the front person role. A Paramore cover was unsurprising but the Black Country Communion one certainly was, and the segue into a jazzed up “War Pigs” was super cool. Look out for these guys.

Downgirl took about 30 seconds from the end of Lou Harbridge’s acknowledgement of Country to rip the Station Bar apart. This band is a wrecking ball of snarling energy trading in classic L7-style femme angst. Skarlett Saramore doesn’t just play the drums, she attacks the kit with her entire body. Up front, Alex Neville and Kristen Adams are total live wires, throwing themselves around the room, into the audience – eventually Neville is up on a table inciting the already rowdy crowd into a swirling chaos, not bad for a room full of large tables, not really made for intense moshing.

Their catchy, raucous punk rock and dynamic stage presence keeps the Station engaged, and while I’m not sure anyone actually did break out into the Madison when Downgirl suggested people “do the Nutbush” along to their current single “2006” as a tribute to Tina Turner, the “Where the bloody Hell are ya?” chorus came back to them pretty loudly.

The songs were wild and loud, the crowd went nuts, there was almost a fight, at least one guy got thrown out for getting too rowdy and by the end the Station Bar was left reeling by a feminine four piece powerhouse. If you don’t catch Downgirl at an intimate show like this one soon, you might never again – greatness beckons.

Image: Jaz Fischer-Giffin.