The Arthouse, a Melbourne institution and rightly so. Apparently their open mic night on a Monday is one of the better one’s around Melbourne (if they do say so themselves in their own gig guide), unfortunately on this particular Monday it’s Melbourne Cup Eve, so the open mic is cancelled and some established bands are taking the stage. I knew this in advance, however I did spot a few disappointed people get as close as the front door before reading the “open mic cancelled” sign and turning around, why on earth they wouldn’t stay to watch some bands is beyond me. Turns out joke’s on them, because they missed a good show.

First cab off the rank, Ammadu. Music wise I would probably go with thrash-punk mixed with metal, I’d say they definitely have a foot planted firmly in both camps. I’m not talking about nu-metal either thanks kids, I’m talking proper metal. The highlight of their set without doubt was actually an instrumental track, a blistering piece of power metal with all the trimmings, blast beats, guitar solos, all that good stuff.

Backyard Surgeons took to the stage and whipped through a set of hard edged speedy punk rock songs, the band were lively on stage and provided some good entertainment for the growing crowd. Their songs ran the gamut from punk rock…to punk rock, and didn’t really deviate from that, but that is not always (ever) a bad thing, it certainly wasn’t in this case. Fast, unpretentious songs, a good stage show, and you got the impression that they are having a blast doing what they’re doing up there. If you’re a fan of punk rock bands these guys would definitely be up your alley. On a side note the guitarist had on a Break Even t-shirt, I wonder if he picked it up at the show I reviewed on the mighty AU Review...

The past year has seen the Peninsula based 4-piece play tour supports for punk rock luminaries such as NOFX, Bad Religion, Strung Out, and Lagwagon to name but a few, so to have garnered themselves that impressive list of supports alone they must be doing something right. I later found out that music wise they doing a lot of things right also.

One of the great things about punk rock is that sometimes actual musical talent isn’t vital, but that isn’t to say that every punk band is low on skill. Musically the 4-piece No Credit were about as tight as you’re ever likely to see from a punk band, or any band in fact, and don’t be fooled into thinking that just because they’re a punk band that for them to be tight they would just need to have mastered playing power chords. No Credit’s songs changed tempos and key, and the lead riffs and guitar solos were impressive. Musically it would be easy to draw comparisons to your 90’s-00’s so-cal punk rock bands (and a few of their tracks would not sound particularly out of place in a Lagwagon or Strung Out set), but there was a little bit more to their music than that.

The band had great energy, frontman Pat Connolly expertly worked the small Arthouse stage, managing to straddle the line between being active on stage and staying out of the way of your fellow bandmates (an art in itself on the Arthouse stage), and the songs touched on all those pressing issues that you want punk rock to be about; drinking, partying with your mates and getting f*cked up. In fact their music made me want to do just that.

I would recommend making your way over to their myspace page and checking out some of the songs, my particular favourite is Summer Stoned, and it was my favourite on the night too, a close second was the song titled No Credit, which most of the crowd seemed to know most of the words to.

Although this band is from the Peninsula (about an hour or so drive for the uninitiated) they do seem to make the trek up to Melbourne a fair bit, so if you happen to catch their name in a gig guide somewhere, go check em out, and bring your drinking hat. Especially if you’re into punk rock, but even if you’re not, I’m sure you’ll find something to like about this band.

Photo was taken from No Credit's Myspace Page