Friday, Sep 8

HOCKEY DAD
Ultra Q
Chastity
Similar Kind

8 pm doors
$20/25
all ages

What began as something to do while there was no surf has become so much more for Zach Stephenson and Billy Fleming aka Hockey Dad. In 2013 the two who had been friends since early childhood started jamming in their parent’s garage because there were no waves. With Zach on guitar/ vocals and Billy behind the drum kit the two quickly progressed to writing their own songs and had a set together to start playing some shows locally across Wollongong.

Between shows during the 2015 they managed to once again hit the studio to record their debut album and were also invited to the USA for the first time to play CMJ festival in New York. The first US tour would prove pivotal in the bands international plans with agency and label representation in North America coming from their showcases and the event and as a result they would return to the US in March 2016 to play SXSW. Two more albums and many tours followed.

With touring stalled for much of 2020 and 2021, Zach and Billy alongside live bass player Steve Bourke have been writing and recording new music for album four, while keeping engaged in alternate ways. The 2020 drive in show had been professionally recorded and in October 2021 was released as a limited edition vinyl. Their loyal fanbase has also kept rolling with the band with their single Seaweed’ hitting platinum status in Australia, while the singles ‘Join The Club’ and ‘I Need A Woman’ have gone gold.

Hockey Dad are now ready to get back on the stage and deliver new music in 2023. https://www.hockeydadband.com/

Jakob Armstrong — youngest son of Green Day frontman Billie Joe — began playing guitar at seven years old and honed his craft privately until about sixteen, playing in bands in and around Oakland after meeting friends with like-minded tastes in music. Soon enough, with the memories of Ultraman action figures fighting in his mind, he and a group of friends he cultivated from those years playing around and pouring over records, formed Ultra Q (its name inspired by an Ultraman prequel series). https://www.ultraqmusic.com/

Brandon Williams makes resonant songs that capture isolation and resilience. As the songwriter behind Chastity, the
Whitby, Ontario musician has made three unrelentingly perceptive albums culminating in the cathartic Suffer Summer, which is out January 13, 2022 via Deathwish and Dine Alone Records. The LP caps off an album trilogy
that showcases both Williams’ emotional range as a lyricist but also his boundless love of outsider music. His 2018  debut Death Lust pulled from Unwound and The Smashing Pumpkins as he grappled with mortality while 2019’s  Home Made Satan dealt in world-weary anxiety and Hum-like atmospherics. But Suffer Summer is a meditation on  happiness, channeled through powerhouse riffs and undeniably potent choruses, sung with Mineral and Jimmy Eat  World worn on his sleeve. 

Similar Kind is an indie pop band from Norwalk, CT. It originated as just a few friends jamming in a garage and has blossomed into a five piece band playing shows all over the US. Similar Kind has played with acts such as Sunflower Bean, Bad Bad Hats, Hot Flash Heat Wave, No Vacation & more. The band is currently working on a follow up EP to their debut "Faces & Places" a project chock-full of indie pop, reminiscent of The Cure and Talking Heads, described as "dance-ready synth-pop. equal parts R&B, pop, and indie rock, the EP is a highly-polished, thoroughly-confident release". https://linktr.ee/similarkind