The Croxton Block Party (day 1)
With Tropical Fuck Storm, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks, Party Dozen, Grace Cummins, Exek, NPCede and Loose Lips, 1 November 2025 in Melbourne.
Initially I was reluctant to go to this, an all-day outdoor music stage with $100 tickets. These things can tend to involve a lot of queueing and crowding, making them difficult to enjoy. And also, let's be honest, I am a bit of a tightarse and there are so many great shows to go to for sub-$20. But thankfully I got over myself and went along.
The Block Party (actually a two-day event, but I only went to the first) was held to celebrate the Croxton Bandroom's 10th birthday. It was staged not in the Bandroom itself but in the car park on the other side of High Street. We were blessed with perfect weather for what was a really well done event.
They put on a single stage with good breaks between bands, a nicely sized crowd (maybe 1000? No idea) and a generous amount of space, staff and amenities, completely avoiding the outdoor festival shitfight factor. The crowd skewed older and weirder, which made for good vibes.
And of course the lineup was great. It was awesome to see NPCede again not long after seeing them at Nighthawks, a much different vibe this time in the bright sunlight. I also really liked Exek, a genre-defying six piece.
During one of the early bands (probably Loose Lips) a drone hovered above the crowd. Someone threw a beer can up at it and instead of hitting the drone it landed on top of the drone, to a little cheer from those that noticed. The drone swiftly buzzed away.
Probably my favourite set for the day was that of Party Dozen. They really went for it, inspiring the drummer from Tropical Fuck Storm to crowdsurf. Using a mic'ed up saxophone (with lots of delay) for vocals seemed to be a good idea.
Later punters were lining up to get 'MAD ROOTER' stencil-spraypainted onto clothing to match Party Dozen's saxophonist's shirt. I mused to myself, I wonder how many realised this was vaguely derived from a 12th Man joke making fun of Sri Lankan cricketers' names?
At one point I noticed a man in the crowd whip out a comb, and comb his beard. I typed out this sentence and immediately realised that the reader would picture some top-knot bearing bearded hipster who probably talks long and boringly about craft beer. Not so: this was a scruffy dude without a milligram of pretension.
There was also someone else there who looked exactly like Bob from Twin Peaks and smoked several joints.
Grace Cummins I liked best when her band went a-wandering away from straight rock and roll. As a vocalist she barely needs amplification. Not dissimilarly, stalwarts Cash Savage and the Last Drinks start with blues rock but make it interesting, while keeping it all very sincere.
Last up were the great Tropical Fuck Storm. One should always be wary of supergroups but sometimes they are worth it. TFS are one example, another is The Minus Five whose music I really must wade through much further. We'll be seeing TFS again next weekend.
During the TFS set a rando in the crowd beckoned us to look into the crowd where, just as she promised, there was a man who looked like a young Noel Fielding. All day I'd been eyeballing the crowd thinking everyone here looks like someone, a person from that TV show, or that dude I went to uni with. I'm glad it wasn't just me.
I'm pretty glad not to be doing it all again today, although it would've been good to see Ratcat play. (I recently re-listened to Blind Love and was quite shocked how good it is.) Standing in a car park all day was a bit rough on the ol' musculoskeletal system.
