Press Club photo by Nick Manuell
Sometimes things don’t go to plan.
Sometimes you’re the perfectly-decent support act Soapbox and this reviewer gives you five measly words to save space for the rest of the review.
Sometimes, though, things just come together and blow your mind.
I’ve never heard a note of Melbourne punks Press Club before (so forgive me for any mistakes in the songs mentioned below!) but I’ll be making up for lost time HARD over the coming weeks.
From the off, Press Club raise the room. Their sound is full, the drums are slamming, the guitars are singing and the bass is thumping. This is a band who can manage pace and dynamics, and they bring the crowd up a level or two… and then the vocals start and I’m hooked! I have hardly any notes for this gig because I’m soon up at the front, dancing like an idiot.
Singer Natalie Foster executes the sweetest of notes at the highest of pitches and delivers them with the most relentlessly raw timbre, and infectious energy and personality. Calling her a ‘dynamo’ doesn’t come close.
Drummer Frank Lees and bassist Iain Macrae seem to alternate between about 25% and 100% intensity (which for me as a grunge kid is the only acceptable playing style) but every member of the band seems to have an amazing ability to execute every part – whether it’s full power or slow or restrained – to its maximum potential.
Press Club feels fresh but will feel familiar, too; think 2000s Distillers energy, Jimmy Eat World tonality, a vocal range and power that would make Courtney Love envious, and weave all that together with heart-wrenching, tearjerking lyrics.
Suburbia (from debut Late Teens) and Separate Houses (from follow-up Wasted Energy) both hit hard and much of the breathing room in the set comes from newer material, including Champagne & Nikes, Wilt and the title track of new album To The Ones That I Love. These all showcase a maturity and craft that brings Press Club’s set out of the realms of straight “punk” and into much more accessible territory.
Guitarist Greg Rietwyk described the new album to me as an exploration of universal love, and the genuine joy in the crowd at the end of the gig when the band come out and share set lists, drumsticks and other bits shows that the love is real.
I could reach for words like ‘poignant’ or ‘rousing’ or try to tell you how this show reached into me and physically lifted me up… but instead I will do something I very, VERY rarely do and just tell you straight out that if you like rock, alternative, punk, or metal, then you absolutely have to listen to Press Club.
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Press Club’s latest release To All The Ones That I Love was released May 2nd 2025 and is (at the time of writing) available for £0.99 on their website.
https://pressclubmusic.com/products/to-all-the-ones-that-i-love-1
I've been playing bass guitar and guitar for over half my life. I last played bass in in a band called Electromotive and as a singer-songwriter I have written songs about cheese and vajazzles (separate songs!). I started out listening to 60s, 70s and 80s rock as a kid and I was in to grunge and U.S. punk and ska in the 90s. Since then, I've broadened my tastes and I like the best of all styles of music, even country. I've been writing for Silent Radio since it started.
