🌍✨Shhhh! Midwest Emo is On: Hot Mulligan at Factory Theatre (March 7th)
Tour: Hot Mulligan Australia Tour 2024
Date: March 7th 2024
Bands / Artists: Bad Neighbour, Free Throw, Hot Mulligan
From: Brisbane, Tennessee, & Michigan
Welcome to another lil World Wide by Webspinner piece :) — This one was a lot of fun.
I had the most wonderful chance to shoot and review the Hot Mulligan show at the Factory Theatre ~a bit over a week ago~. It was sad, it was happy, it was … a lot more comedic than I thought it would be. I had a lot of fun seeing my friends having the very best time all night.
The Show
1. Bad Neighbour
I want to start off saying that it was really nice to see how many people were in early to see Bad Neighbour. I’m a big fan of Brisbane bands and this is one I wasn’t too familiar with so it was really nice to be introduced to them in a live setting. They made perfect sense in the lineup — being a mix of midwest emo sort of vibes with the right amount of roughness and some layered highs. Even with a slightly malfunctioning guitar, their energy was incredible and I loved watching them have fun — even with their slight nervous jitters.
They killed it, their crowd interaction was really sweet and really nice to see. They didn’t waste any time and successfully warmed up the crowd and introduced the hype that would be felt throughout the venue for the rest of the night. It was wonderful being introduced to their work, this si definitely a band I will be keeping an eye on.
2. Free Throw
Between sets, the room started to fill up a little more so by the time Free Throw took the stage, I’d say, it was nearly filled with the entirety of the night’s sold out crowd (it was maybe,,,, 2/3 full?).
They were … exactly what I pictured they would be on a lineup like this — a whole lot of fun despite the sad/rawness in their songs. An incredible energy that didn’t drop off at any point during their set. A mix of more chilled out sad parts with sudden lifts of energy harder drums, grittier guitars, more yell-y vocals, and really good echos (the stuff that happens when you have two vocals and good sound mixing within the venue, I think — big fan of the sound team i think).
Also — and I’m not sure how to word this — I really liked the way they structured their set. How they placed certain pauses between songs or filled the room with the strum of a guitar while setting up for the next little bit, or the way they interacted with the crowd between songs. In a small way, it was different to what I’ve seen from bands in the past, but it was nice and I loved it. It was like breaking down the elements of the fully instrumental tracks they’d played prior and were ready to play next but breaking it down between songs to talk to the crowd or fill in the space while tuning took place. (if any of this makes sense … uhhh ….)
I also just kind of feel like this was the best venue to see Free Throw in. Factory Theatre has the same kind of roughness and intimacy as their music and seeing them in that space just really made sense with the songs. It would’ve been really fun to see them play with a backdrop just to finish elevating the space I think though.
3. Hot Mulligan
I wasn’t sure what to expect from a Hot Mulligan set, I’ll be honest. I think I kind of want to say this is the first proper more ‘midwest emo’ than ‘pop punk’ show I’ve gone to so I think I came in with a bit of an idea of what to expect and I think that expectation was met in some ways and outdone in others. Hot Mully, if you will, isn’t a band I actively listen to much, I think I did a little bit in like tenth-ish grade, but I was still excited to see who they’d be in a live setting.
Firstly, I wanna get this out of the way immediately because it’s been what I tell people when they ask how the show was: the whole night — but particularly Hot Mully’s set — was comedic which I wasn’t expecting from a midwest emo show (but I probably should’ve seen coming at THIS midwest emo show). From the vocalist being a menace while running around talking about only doing a shoey in a clean shoe, to asking everyone to be quiet so they could get everyone to crack their knuckles at the same time to fill that silence, to just,,,, general comments and interaction with the crowd. They made the night a lot of fun — so not only was the crowd moshing and yelling and tearing up — they were also laughing, having the very best time.
Musically — which is, I guess, why you’re here — they outdid every expectation I had of what their set could be. I think I was expecting it to be really sonically rough and gritty but it was actually the opposite? The contrast of clean, polished instrumentation with the rough vocals was so wonderful. The bass tone was so clean, the drums added a bit of brightness to everything, while the guitars kind of danced around each other throughout. Every track was a good level of so much fun and a slight little bit of darkness mixed in — it was bittersweet (as it tends to be with me). There was an insane energy that never dropped off, the band and the crowd feeding it back and forth to each other. There wasn’t a single song that didn’t get a wild, excited reaction, and I had a blast getting to experience that.
Final Highlights
→ Firstly, getting to witness the show with a friend who was so incredibly excited to see some of those songs live. The absolute JOY when certain songs came up was so wholesome to see.
→ Bad Neighbour were a very massive highlight. They were so good, love u Brisbane (my favorite bittersweet statement to say).
→ Also, I ran into someone at this show who I didn’t actually think I’d probably ever see again, and something about knowing we still exist in the same universe was… overwhelming but also,,, grounding? I dunno, but it’s never happened before so I thought I’d mention it.
I’m so grateful to Bigmouth PR for having me along — once again — on such an iconic, sold out, night. I wasn’t sure what to expect — or I thought I was — but I had a lot of … unexpected, oddly specific fun. As always, also, thank you all so much for reading and supporting all the wonderful bands and creatives I get to work with and whose stories I have the pleasure of sharing!
Find Bad Neighbour over on:
Instagram / Facebook / Youtube / Spotify / Apple Music / Amazon Music / Triple J Unearthed
Get more Free Throw info over on:
Website / Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Youtube / Spotify / Apple Music / Amazon Music / TikTok
Stay up to date with Hot Mulligan over on:
Website / Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Youtube / Spotify / Apple Music / Amazon Music
Get more Webspinner on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and check out the Spotify. If you have any questions, requests, ideas, or want to work with Webspinner get in touch through webspinnermag@gmail.com, I’ve not been too active on there, so I can’t promise a quick reply (or any reply for that matter), but it’s always nice to find new music in my inbox every once in a while.
