Swapmeet at Northcote Social Club
18 September 2026 in Melbourne, supported by Dogworld and Ebop.
Just to be clear straight up, I wanted to go to this gig because of Dogworld - I had not even heard of Swapmeet before. Whereas usually I will go to a show and arrive for the support acts as a great way of discovering and enjoying new bands, in this case my magnanimity extended to staying for the headliner. It helped that Swapmeet sounded promising on paper.
(My typing hands keep trying to type Swamp instead of Swapmeet. Did it again then.)
Not knowing of Swapmeet may be explained it being a young-skewing crowd. As regular readers will now, I don't skew especially young. It was a sell out, too, and I think this was the final show on their national album launching tour.
The opening band Ebop were great. Some nice angular guitar lines, low-key vocals offset by an extroverted drummer. Based on their bandcamp page, Ebop appears to be a solo project that's expanded into a band, at least for the tour. I hope they come to Melbourne again soon.
It was obvious that it had been a fun tour based on the good energy coming off the stage. Loads of people arrived early to see all the bands, too.
Next was my faves Dogworld, who have some new material it seems, and hopefully that means they'll be releasing a new album or whathaveyou soon. They said they were sick of playing their old songs, but I am not sick of hearing them.
By the time Swapmeet came on the room was truly packed and everyone was super keen. I really liked this band too, and I'm really glad generally that people are still making this type of music (I can't be bothered citing genres right now).
The crowd was pretty jostly and I moved back to get out of the fray, in the spirit of not accepting things that aren't really working for me. Since my run of terrible phone photos I brought my camera to this show, but having a fully-fledged camera strapped to my person isn't really conducive to heaving crowds, nor is wearing a jacket. I can't be prepared for everything!
This was definitely one of those shows that felt like taking good medicine. When you leave elated and aren't in a hurry to get home (even if that means long waits for the train along the dreaded Mernda line). Heck yeah.
