Whitehorse at Mamma Chen's

5 July 2025 in Melbourne, with Kuntsquad, Strawberry Fist Cake, Beanflipper, Resistance, Blowhole, ADHD, Y Not, Knife and Wot Rot.

It's time for a punk show. Punk and metal really, although judging from the sartorial settings on the day it was definitely a punk show.

Mamma Chen's is one of the few live music venues left in the neighbourhood. I've seen lots of small memorable shows here now. It's a worthy successor to the Dancing Dog Café, the previous occupant of this building and a place I had a strong personal connection to.

It wasn't clear from the posters stuck on local poles how many bands were playing or how long it would go for, but in the end it was a big lineup, starting at 2.30pm and going until 11pm. This show was organised in honour of Bucky's 60th birthday. I don't know Bucky from a proverbial, but using my very sharp abductive powers I can tell you with reasonable confidence that he is a lifelong Melbourne punk and part of the band Y Not.

This scene is loud, crusty and smelly but also kind of wholesome. Everyone has their punk scene outfits. At least one of the bands (ADHD) was comprised of punk offspring, although it seems they had decided metal was more their thing, adopting an aesthetic straight from the set of a Kevin Smith movie. We were especially impressed by one of them wearing Slayer shorts. (Where does one get Slayer shorts?)

I was definitely in the mood to listen to heavy music on this day and really liked all of the bands. It wasn't a difficult decision to stay for the whole thing. I'm especially glad I stayed because the last band on was Whitehorse.

Whitehorse are a doom metal band and they were awesome (I had not seeen them before now). I think they only played three (long) tracks in their whole set. I haven't gone deep into doom metal, not even close, but I have a feeling it would be a wise personal choice. (A few months ago I saw and loved the doom metal band Divide and Dissolve, and I'm now re-reminding myself I need to pick up their new album.)