Diploid at the Last Chance

29 August 2025 in Melbourne, supported by The World At A Glance, ESP Mayhem and R.U.B.

Once again the seemingly bottomless Melbourne music scene delivers good times, this time at the Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar in North Melbourne.

We began with punk band R.U.B who wore their politics overtly as many Melbourne bands do. Their songwriting was pretty great, and I especially appreciated that their stage banter was so offputting to the antisocial dude who was jostling me specifically that he walked away in a huff. Job well done.

Next up was ESP Mayhem. Curiosity was certainly piqued by three (3) keyboards being set up. As it turns out they play cybergrind (or whatever, I am no genre whisperer), no guitar, but drums and screamy vocals. They were really awesome. The band logo on their t-shirts steals both the ESPN logo and the band Mayhem which is all pretty funny.

I should note that, in the main bar, the TVs were playing old episodes of Gladiators and then the live action Masters of the Universe movie. Dolph made an outstanding He-Man and I hope that one day he revives this important work.

The third band The World At A Glance describe themselves as experimental post-hardcore doom. Weirdly my first impression was that they sounded a bit Joe Strummer-y, but really that was just the vocals in one of their songs. They really had their own sound and I thought they were great (and they had a violinist!).

This is the point where you realise you're at one of those shows that starts off good and then gets better with every band.

Finally the headliner Diploid, a grindcore band I had the opportunity to see previously but for some reason I can't remember, did not. I won't be making that mistake again - they rule. Only problem was that The Last Chance have a midnight curfew so unfortunately Diploid's set was not as long as it really should have been.

We are so utterly spoilt for music in this city.