like rampaging musical dinosaurs!

Ruby Fields @ Crowbar, Sydney NSW Australia 25/05/2019 written by Brendan Lewis.

Is it just me, or is the whole Jurassic Park thing getting a bit over-played? I mean, you’d think after four movies the whole Dinosaurs (giant carnivorous hunting machines) plus humans (comparatively tiny and clearly less intelligent) equals dinner for dinosaurs… then they go and create a hybrid of the two most deadly dinosaurs and coup it up in an amusement park, and what happens? Dinner for dinosaurs… and they go and make another freakin’ movie!

Some might say this is just like rock music with the ever-changing music climate around it evolving, eating rock and your dads opinion for dinner like dinosaurs. I say, if you believe that, then you’re a bloody dingo. Because just like that funky Endo-Rapter thingy from Jurassic World, Cronulla’s Ruby Fields brings a fresh flavour to a classic taste and proves rock won’t be extinct, and the quickly filling space around me here at Crowbar Sydney tonight for the second Sydney show on Ruby’s tour thanks to roaring demand backs up that claim!

Ruby charges straight into her set with her much loved first single ‘I Want’ with it’s anthemic hook and angsty-ladin mid-tempo energy thrust, followed by ‘Libby’s Pink Car’ with a brutal punk-rock bite made more vicious with the second verse’s swear emphasized for more impact on contact.

I was rather curious as to which song Ruby would choose to open her highly anticipated show with seeing as the typical choice of opening with the first song off the touring album/EP, wouldn’t be appropriate as in this case it’s Ruby’s greatest success hit ‘Dinosaurs’, so opening with her first single that landed her sequential success is perfectly poetically fitting. This is also a perfect choice to light the spark in the audience from the get go, with some meaty anthemic sing-alongs that fans would all be well acquainted with to sink their teeth into, before the thrashing punk-rock attitude of ‘Libby’s Pink Car’ swallows us whole.

The ferocity of the buzzing energy is laxed in the music for an acoustic-lead ‘Redneck Lullaby’ (I’m pretty sure), but not before the candid attitude of ‘Climate’. The acoustic contrast of ‘Redneck Lullaby’ comes over me like a cool breeze… before one of Ruby’s band mates launches themselves into the crowd literally over me, sparking the energy alight once more for full-throttle stampeding energy rush and new single ‘Trouble’.

Only five songs in and already I’m really starting to wish I’d taken off my jacket before Ruby came on. One thing that seems to be apparent in the crowd is everyone is in very high spirits and having an absolute ball, and no dickheads being disrespectful of others which is fantastic, just a room filled to the absolute max with adoring fans all here to enjoy the music and have a good time. Another thing that’s also apparent and which I’ve grown to love about this venue, is how the speakers can be blasted at insane volumes (like tonight) but maintain perfect crisp clarity thanks to the sound mixer who clearly knows what they’re doing! This means that Ruby’s perfect deliverance of her songs is perfectly audible and goes down like the tastiest treat!

The rest of Ruby’s set consists of more of those meaty and juicy infectious sing-along anthems such as ‘Ritalin’ and ‘P Plates’ that bleed Ruby’s raw talent and signature sound that have grown such a strong fan base already which landed ‘Dinosaurs’ at #9 on the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown of earlier this year. Apart from the candid attitude we’ve all grown to love, the addition of ‘Dingo’ with a sense of vulnerability and pleading with more exquisite falsetto vocals from Ruby and features more prominent piano than the recording, gives the perfect element of contrast to the blazing energy, without being completely foreign. And who doesn’t like a good ol’ Aussie rock classic? Ruby dishes out a cover of ‘The Unguarded Moment’ by The Church which Ruby pulls off brilliantly, and it’s vibe is brilliantly fitting for Ruby’s songs!

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this musical safari tonight, even with being pinned against the barrier hard by 500 adoring fans, so when the set is rapped up with, of course, ‘Dinosaurs’ with a bigger badder extended rock out at the end in which one of Ruby’s band mates again crowd surfs for the grand finale, I’m feeling very satisfied indeed!

None of that planned encore crap after the band walks off the stage barely for a minute, nope, Ruby and her band just blasted out the tunes giving us everything they’ve got until there was nothing left, a true rock show! And unlike Jurassic Park, I hope there’s loads more installments to come...