Wet Weather, Warm Hearts
Saturday 24th October 2026
Written by Tom Wilson
Photographed by: Rashid AlKamraikhi
We Get Soggy With 4ZZZ in Brisbane!
Sometimes, Mother Nature is part of the show. Whether it’s a perfectly timed bolt of lightning during a Metallica concert or the heavens opening up during SLAYER’s last Brisbane performance of Raining Blood, playing shows outdoors can lead to incredible moments. It’s been pouring rain all week, and the forecast for today is dire. Having spent eleven years in the Army, I like to be prepared, and I am probably the most prepared punter in Roma St Parklands, about to wage war with the elements with a poncho, zip loc bags for everything in my backpack, and I’ve even passed up my traditional gig Converse for a pair of my old Army boots. But will it be enough?
There is almost no shelter anywhere on the grounds, so our choices are “make your peace with getting wet” or “go home”, and it doesn’t look like anyone is choosing the second option, though I do wonder what the final turnout would have looked like if we’d had clear skies. We assemble in the amphitheatre as TAPE/OFF get things started, acknowledging both the traditional owners of the land and the determination of the soggy fans in front of them. Having some fun with an inflatable 1980s mobile phone which he uses to “call up” special guests to come out and perform, Nathan Pickles doesn’t mince words singing the praises of his colleagues in the music scene. From trumpet player Luke McCallum of locals GHOST NOTES to singer Madeleine Keinonen of RENOVATOR’S DELIGHT – who he declares “one of Australia’s greatest songwriters” – Nathan doesn’t skimp on compliments, even when acknowledging that, somehow, he’s wound up with SCREAMFEEDER legend Tim Steward as his guitar tech!
From here, we turn and direct our attention to the Uphill Stage, and if you can find a more suitably named stage, I’ll eat my hat. It’s on such an incline that I’ve got to watch bands while turned 45-degrees to face up the hill, but the sound is immaculate as BABY COOL takes to the stage and declares their love for 4ZZZ before dropping into Devotion. This is a good point in the review to mention that Zed51 is a much lighter show than we usually cover. There’s more than one tambourine in use today, even a flute or two, and the heaviest band of the day, Adelaide’s THE MARK OF CAIN, aren’t even a metal band. But we can’t live on metal alone, and it’s nice to not have a double-bass-induced headache after a few hours. I bring this up just in case I stuff up and call BABY COOL something they aren’t (I wouldn’t even know what genre to call them), but as sheets of drizzle fall from the grey heavens, Grace Cuell’s voice is absolutely hypnotic, and I can’t help but think she’d crush a cover of The Girl from Ipanema. She gets extra cool points when she mentions that not only are they playing new tracks from their album Infinity Baby, but she’s actually had a real baby this year too, who is currently taking in their first BABY COOL show from a chest carrier side of stage.
Pictured: TAPE/OFF
Pictured: TAPE/OFF
Pictured: BABY COOL
Pictured: BABY COOL
Up next, we turn back to the amphitheatre as PRIMITIVE RING turn back the clock all the way to the 1970s with some fuzzed-out psych rock. Stepping into the bill after I HEART HIROSHIMA were forced to cancel, the LA rockers are in the country touring with Seattle’s MUDHONEY and are now playing Brisbane for the first time ever. The weather is probably nicer back home, but while the crowd is wet, the reception is warm, and the power trio get a massive response from the early crowd as their set climaxes in a psychedelic freakout of feedback and cheering.
And do you know what else is massive? STILL FULL FROM LUNCH have just kicked off on the Uphill Stage with as many members as SLIPKNOT, and it takes a minute to figure out that the seven-piece has two extra people onstage with them today. Space might be at a premium right now, but they make the most of it, smiles beaming as their beautiful music unfurls over our soggy heads. A flute delicately flutters through their mix as a trumpet swells, and as they bring the song to a close, the crowd gets a giggle when they tell us it was called Rain. Seems fitting!
Pictured: PRIMITIVE RING
Pictured: PRIMITIVE RING
Pictured: STILL FULL FROM LUNCH
Pictured: STILL FULL FROM LUNCH
It might be possible to introduce SHONEN KNIFE without mentioning that NIRVANA’s Kurt Cobain was a massive fan who insisted on taking them on tour, but it’s not happening today. Coming out in their infamous matching dresses of geometric coloured shapes (inspired by Piet Mondrian’s Tableau I, which you might also recognise from SILVERCHAIR’s Young Modern cover), the crowd roars as they drop into their guitar-driven pop-punk, sung entirely in Japanese. They’ve been in the game for forty-five years, so it goes without saying that they’re tight as a drum, but they’re as human as the rest of us, and the crowd gets a massive laugh when singer-guitarist Naoko Yamano mentions that she just saw her first Ibis and didn’t know what to make of it. Watching her learn the term “bin chicken” from the front row isn’t something I’m going to forget in a hurry, particularly given that one was pecking around side stage as she said it. It’s around this point in the day when we give up on hoping for better weather and just make the best of what we have, even if the pit occasionally resembles a landfill with all the ponchos having the colour and texture of garbage bags, except these garbage bags drink beer and go “wooo!”
They’d won me over the second I heard their band name, but fortunately MITCH, PLEASE have much more to offer than a good pun. They point out the sign by the main stage which hilariously prohibits circle pits (it’s a crescent-shaped pit where such manoeuvres are almost impossible), and let us know that they don’t subscribe to such harsh rules, introducing Polygon Pit by requesting the crowd try to run in complicated shapes. Square pit, anyone? Frontwoman Polly Cooke is a whirlwind of hyperactive energy and absurdist humour, flashing us the thumbs up to let us know that we’re crushing it at being an audience. Thanks Polly! I’ve given it heaps of practice. Their “nerd punk” goes down a storm, and their set is proof of something I’m willing to say with my full chest: music is always better if the frontwoman is dressed as a hamburger.
Pictured: SHONEN KNIFE
Pictured: SHONEN KNIFE
Pictured: MITCH, PLEASE
Pictured: MITCH, PLEASE
We turn back to the amphitheatre for the Acknowledgement of Country. Cultural educator Goma Conlon leads the proceedings, as those who have travelled to be here are welcomed to the traditional lands of the Turrbal, Yuggera and Jagera people, and blessings are extended to those of us who already call this place home. It’s beautifully done, and sets the stage perfectly for CASH SAVAGE & THE LAST DRINKS, who serenade soggy punters with an intoxicating blend of blues, rock and folk. The eldest child of late NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS member Conway Savage, whoever coined the phrase “talent skips a generation” obviously hasn’t seen Cash Savage onstage with a guitar in hand. The band are no slouches either, as we witness saxophone player Anna Langdon change a reed mid-song and bring it swelling back into the music. Everyone is having a brilliant time onstage tonight, and Cash takes a moment to thank the crowd for their love of community radio and stresses how important it is in the face of social media algorithms and all the rest of the shit we’ve got to deal with these days, and from the roar that answers, we clearly feel the same way.
Pictured: Goma Conlon
Pictured: Goma Conlon
Pictured: CASH SAVAGE & THE LAST DRINKS
Pictured: CASH SAVAGE & THE LAST DRINKS
Given that the music has not stopped since 12:45pm, eventually I was going to miss someone’s performance, and unfortunately tonight that is the case for DEM MOB, who get the Uphill Stage pumping while I smash a feed and get back into the action. A First Nations rap group from the APY Lands in South Australia, they’ve been referred to as “the most remote hip hop group in the world”, and are the first group to bring the Pitjantjatjara language to rap. Lyrics flow like water, and even as the sun begins to set, the music shines bright.
Up next is an exciting one for me, as Adelaide’s THE MARK OF CAIN take the stage and Eli Green starts beating his kit like it owes him money. Josie lets her Rickenbacker scream with feedback over Eli’s punishing volley, before kicking off Interloper, and the crowd roars. The heaviest rock band in Australia, their sound is instantly recognisable – Josie’s guitar jangling over her brother Kim’s heavy-as-lead basslines – and we give ourselves a neck workout to the crushing First Time. They debut two new tracks today – their first new music since 2012’s Songs of the Third and Fifth – and they sound absolutely punishing, before dropping a deep cut I’d given up hope of ever hearing live: Cut ‘Em Down from This is This. THE MARK OF CAIN are so good that I almost don’t notice that my right foot keeps sliding sideways, and when I finally look down I see that the sole of my boot has sheared almost completely off, and is dangling off the toe. Sigh…
Pictured: DEM MOB
Pictured: DEM MOB
Pictured: THE MARK OF CAIN
Pictured: THE MARK OF CAIN
Pictured: Tom’s Busted Boot
Up the hill, it’s time to check in to SUPER HOTEL, and their languid alt-country casts a spell over the crowd of wet ponchos, as the stage lights illuminate the sheets of drizzle falling over Roma Street Parklands. Frontwoman Emily Simms is effortlessly charming, and the melodies are infectious. “How’s the weather out there?” They ask, knowing full-well the answer, and the cheer from the crowd tells them that we’re not letting the rain dampen our spirits. (Emily also called me out for looking like a ‘fluffy dog’. As a cat person, I’ve never been so offended! 😜 - Rashid)
As they close their set, we get ready to bang our heads again as Seattle legends MUDHONEY kick off in the amphitheatre. Frontman Mark Arm was on this stage last year as the frontman for THE SAINTS (73-78), but tonight is a different beast, as the grunge legends flex their muscles and see the first crowdsurfer of the day. They first performed for 4ZZZ in 1990 to about 600 people. I wasn’t there – I was busy being five – but I can only imagine that a song like Touch Me I’m Sick sounds just as savage as it did when they were young. An incredible set.
Pictured: SUPER HOTEL
Pictured: SUPER HOTEL
Pictured: MUDHONEY
Pictured: MUDHONEY
Filling in for his friend BARKAA who has had to withdraw due to personal circumstances, FRED LEONE is an MC and cultural leader of Aboriginal, Tongan and South-Sea Islander roots. He's also almost fifty, but you’d be a fool to think he can’t still throw down. “Not bad for a couple of old blokes” he laughs between songs. The DJ shows off his scratching skills as Fred gets the crowd pumping with his effortless flows, and the whole Parkland cheers when they launch into a riotous cover of HOUSE OF PAIN’s Jump Around. Suddenly, Fred brings the set screeching to a halt when it’s time for the line “If your girl steps up, I'm smackin' the ho,” and it’s time for some real talk with Fred:
“If you’re hitting your partner, or you know someone who is hitting their partner … women are dying at a fucking tremendous rate. I love that song, but I don’t agree with that line. I did this with TZU at The Zoo twenty years ago. I stopped and I said, “If that’s you or your mate, cut that shit out, dob ‘em in. LET’S FUCKING GO!”
The crowd roars, the song restarts, and anyone getting their first taste of Fred Leone tonight is mightily impressed (he’s not the only Fred to object to that lyric – for all that people used to say about Fred Durst, even he left the line out when LIMP BIZKIT covered this song in 1998).
As Fred says his goodbyes, we descend on the amphitheatre for the final time tonight, and as CUSTARD take to the stage, the falling rain sparkles in the lights as they drop into Hit Song. Frontman, singer, guitarist and dead-set legend Dave McCormack thanks the crowd for their endurance in the face of Mother Nature, and indie rock staples like Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us) and Apartment go down a storm (though perhaps that’s the wrong phrase). With the sole of my right boot down to about 5% attached, it’s time to say goodbye while I’m not barefoot, so we take our leave as CUSTARD bring the day to a close.
Pictured: FRED LEONE
Pictured: FRED LEONE
Pictured: CUSTARD
Pictured: CUSTARD
It’s likely that no one who came to Zed51 on Saturday will be able to forget the rain, or the magical performances we saw while enduring it. Enormous thanks to all the bands, promoters, staff and punters, and especially 4ZZZ. Let’s do it all again next year!
Pictured: CUSTARD
Photos by: Rashid AlKamraikhi
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