Last Dinosaurs kicked off the Australian leg of their Wellnxss 10 Year Anniversary Tour this weekend in Victoria, stopping by Torquay and Melbourne.
Reimagining the nostalgic sounds of their 2015 sophomore album Wellness, Wellnxss breathes new life into the beloved record with a fresh, more refined feel. The band has been touring the critically acclaimed revamped album to fans across the world before finally touching back down in Australia over the weekend.
California-based indie rock band Bad Suns, started the Saturday night on a high, playing an almost hour-long set featuring songs like “Slow Karma”, “Cardiac Arrest”, and “Daft Pretty Boys.” Frontman Christo Bowman is utterly charismatic and completely mesmerising on stage, effectively warming up the crowd for Last Dinosaurs alongside band members Gavin Bennett and Miles Kottak. Bowman also promised that while this was their first time in Australia, it won’t be their last, and hopefully, it won’t be too long before they’re back.
After the killer set from Bad Suns, the Last Dinosaurs hopped on stage at around 9:30 pm to a packed crowd at the Northcote Theatre in Melbourne. They opened up the night with “Take Your Txme”, and ran through the tracklist in an almost chronological order, with the exception of a few of their newer tracks like “Kebabs” and “Pink Flags” slotted in between, as well as what some might reference as the pièce de résistance, “Apxllo” being saved as the last tune of the night.
From beginning to end Sean Caskey, Lachlan Caskey, and Michael Sloane brought the energy and created a vibrant atmosphere in the room, kicking off everyone’s weekends in the best way. Their synthy and dreamy guitars filled the packed room, giving a new feel to the sounds we know and love from when Wellness was first released. This record feels like the perfect blend of who the band have evolved into, and that is so evident in their live performance. Compared to when I last saw them in 2019, the band feels more refined and more confident in every way, giving a worthy show to new fans and fans who have loved them for over a decade.
In my chat with Sean Caskey earlier in the year, he mentioned how fan-driven this entire era has been, and that was clearly evident at the show. Not only were fans belting out every lyric to every song, and repping new and old merch (myself included), but there were a couple of wholesome fan interactions happening in between songs. The band put the spotlight on a fan who had unbelievably rolled their car over while listening to one of their songs, and also shouted out a fan who had been trying to get them a customised Dinos keyboard. It continued to highlight just how much fans are part of the band’s DNA.
After ending the set with “Apxllo”, which effectively got everyone jumping around the venue, the band came out for their final encore a few minutes later, surprising fans with three more songs. As soon as the riff for “Sense” (Yumeno Garden) played, the crowd shook the room. I’m not going to lie, I got literal goosebumps when I heard those first notes. Watching the room erupt in cheers, hearing a song we never expected to hear on this tour, was a feeling I could never recreate. They played another song from Yumeno Garden with “Eleven” giving the crowd the same type of renowned energy, before finishing up the night with “Zoom”, from In a Million Years.
There is nothing better than going to a show full of fans; a room packed with people who share the same love for an Aussie band that has fuelled the sound of a generation. It was not a crowd full of people who know the one song they heard years ago and stand in the mosh immobile for the entire hour. You could see the Last Dinosaurs thriving off the infectious energy from fans, and the shared enthusiasm between the crowd and the band made for an incredible night.
Last Dinosaurs feels like a pinnacle figure in Australian indie music (at least it is for me), being one of the first Aussie indie bands that introduced me to the incredibly talented roster of artists we have here. The Last Dinosaurs sound is so uniquely them in a way that no one can really recreate, and it’s clear that fans not only from Australia, but around the world, will continue to soak in their music for years to come.
FIVE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Last Dinosaurs continue their Australian 10 Year Anniversary Tour of Wellnxss in Newcastle, Sydney, and Brisbane throughout June. Tickets are still available HERE, so get in while you can!
Reviewer attended 19/6/26
Photos from the author
