Three
Scenes
The scene splinters into three; rock and roll, pseudo-alternative and indie pop, and where I found my place.
the desk · march 2025
breakbone editorial · free press
It's March, and the writer of Breakbone magazine finds himself having quite a lot of good fun.
The scene? It's doing better than ever, with quite a good amount of a psychedelic, rock and roll infused reefer madness. The 'ramp/church' scene is back in black, but with quite a good twist to it—now dubbed the 'Queen Street acid crew', you have to be at the right point in time and space to have some fun, and let me tell you, Heatstroke wasn't lying when they made their song 'Queen Street Acid Trip'.
As for the scene? It's kind of a 'pick and choose' your scene kinda deal at the moment. You have the small scale rock and roll gigs organised by my good mates from the likes of Piss Off, Shock Value, Heavy Liquid, Bubblegum Haircut etc, you also have the pseudo-alternative scene that's fronted by bands like The Amphetamines, Heatstroke, Palinola, Findaway. As for the indie pop scene by Antidismal? Well, it's honestly going on a long hiatus at the moment, but they'll wake up from their slumber, right?
Honestly, I quite like this more 'splintered' nature of the scene. Before you had gigs which were a hodgepodge of bands, which meant you couldn't really rally together a specific little 'tribe' of sorts—instead you had all these factions which were hard to navigate around. But now, you've got three main music scenes in the youth-oriented subscene to choose from:
The rock and roll scene. Honestly, this is the scene I've found my place in, it's small, it's community-like, everyone knows each other, and the gigs are made for the sake of supporting local bands, championing local talent, and to have a great time with your mates. This scene has that Australian-focused, rock and roll, 'new race', TV eye vibe to it, and that's what makes it special. Talk to a few people at a gig, and you're sure to make some good friends. Hell, talk to the band members and they're down to earth and aren't like some snobby band members who let fame and popularity polish their ego. It's a fucking GOATED scene, and I'm happy to be a key player in it.
The pseudo-alternative scene. Now, why do I call it 'pseudo-alternative'? Well it's kinda because the 'alternative' label has been so blown out of proportion by people using it for so many things, that it has kinda lost it's meaning. Besides, it's not right to really just call it all 'alternative', because really, this scene is like a cosmopolitan mixture of many different little bands and their associated genres and fans.
This scene is a lot more commercial, 'out there', and has kinda taken over from Antidismal's place as the main 'introducing scene' for most people. The people in this scene have more ambition to 'make it' in the music scene, and thus you have bands that take more inspiration from stadium acts or popular trends. I don't hate this scene, it's just that I know it's not 'my' scene. This scene is more of an umbrella scene of sorts, because you have all these little groups that are scenes in their own right, but they're all connected to this scene in some way.
The indie pop scene. There's not much to say about it apart from it's on hiatus/currently quiet at the moment.
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