High Vis | Bendigo Hotel
The last time I was at The Bendigo Hotel was last February, where my band played every Sunday night for a month. They were constantly out of beer and we were forced to spend our drink cards on spirits. The pub soon announced they were closing after decades in the industry, but have since sold to Moondog and reopened under the same name.
I return tonight to see High Vis, a UK post-punk outfit who just saw the country playing Good Things, and who are playing their final show in Australia before they fly home to wintry London.
The evening was warm and the sky spread out orange behind the housing commission towers on Johnston Street. I squeezed through the black hats and black jeans smoking out the front to stand at the back of the bar as Time Peace cracked off an ear-splitting twenty minutes.
Their lead singer was charismatic and high-energy, and they played loud and heavy to the slowly filling room. The crunching guitars and incessant kick drum were too harsh for my taste, especially to begin the evening, but the vibe was good and they played a tight set. I stood behind the High Vis guys and watched them shake a few hands and sign a few posters in between trips to the green room to grab cans of beer for their small entourage.
Flying Colours were next on the bill. They played fuzzy shoegaze that built to big crescendos, with duelling guitars over a steady backbeat. I really liked their sound. “Long Holiday” was outstanding, with the guitars exchanging heavily distorted variations of the central melody. The set finished with a long jam that brought the dynamic back down to a quiet ending, which is tricky to pull off and was executed really well.
I drank two glasses of water and waited by the bar.
The lights all went down and a low drone slowly quieted the crowd, now overflowing into the pool room, until a Liverpudlian yell of “what tha fuck!” cut through the room and High Vis launched into their set.
They played “Walking Wires” second and it was my favourite song of the night. A very restrained track that slips into the chorus almost unnoticed, propelled by rapid drums and sustained vocals while the guitars hang back, striking a delicate balance that was deeply satisfying.
Photo Credit: James Edson
Their lead singer Graham Sayle is aggressive but cheeky, and he dedicated the next song, “Talked For Hours”, to “everybody who’s sniffing cocaine”. The security guard I was standing behind snapped to attention, looking disdainfully at the stage, before heading off on a lap through the crowd. The chorus felt like a pub singalong, with major chords and simple progressions balancing out the darkness of their gritty guitar tones and overdriven bass.
During “Out Cold”, Graham stripped off his top, revealing an extravagant chest tattoo. His voice strained to reach the high notes in the chorus, adding a fragile, uncertain air over immovable power chords and strident bass.
High Vis have bravado and punk aggression, but it’s balanced by the tender nakedness of raw vocals and minimal instrumentation, rarely playing too many notes at once. They give themselves no place to hide. The musical equivalent of fucking with the lights on.
They launch into “Choose To Lose”. The song ebbs between confidence and trepidation and the guy in front of me spills his drink.
As the set nears its end, you can see the steam of the crowd rising in the blue and red stage lights. I run for the last bus of the night and cross Hoddle Street just as it pulls into the stop, listening to the band on my headphones as I head down Punt Road.
They’re an interesting blend of hardcore punk and indie rock, transitioning between moods with tact while maintaining momentum throughout a boisterous set. Heavy punk songs are balanced with stripped-back indie choruses, and whenever things get too dark, they lighten them again. An Aristotelian set by a disciplined, intentional band.