BDK Records Curates A Petersham Bowlo Night of Punk

We’re at Petersham Bowlo tonight and BDK Records have curated a lineup of both local and interstate punk bands. With five bands, and titled ‘BDK Visits Sydney’, it almost feels like a mini-festival. Headlining are Sydney’s own egg punk stalwarts Tee Vee Repairmann, who are the only band on the lineup I’ve previously seen live.

BDK are a Melbourne-based independent record label, specialising in the pressing and distribution of Australian punk records. Run by friends Will Keech and Sid Pearn, the label began in 2020 and has continued to grow into a building feature of eastern Australia’s punk scene.

As well as pressing records, they’ve been hosting a whole bunch of these events, primarily in Melbourne but also with a foray into the Brisbane scene.

This is the first time that they’ve put on an event in Sydney, and from the outset it feels very Inner West. It’s DIY, hair and clothing styles are wide and varied, and the venue feels super old school bowlo.

The lineup spruiks the eccentric band names you’d generally associate with the punk underground. Before the headliners we’ve got Meow Meow and the Smackouts, The Med Heads, Cammy Cautious and the Wrestlers, and KNEE.

Locals Meow Meow and the Smackouts open the show with a fiery brand of fuzzy punk, playing to an eager crowd who’re starting to warm up. The lead singer plays a cat-themed keyboard with cat-themed sounds and dances around energetically to approving head bobbing from the audience.

Newcastle’s The Med Heads are way more experimental and jazzy. They play a style of punk unlike much of what I’ve seen of Sydney’s scene. They’ve incorporated a saxophone in an interesting way, playing a kind of art-punk. The drumming in particular is unreal as my mates and I all notice.

Blue Mountaineers-turned-Sydneysiders Cammy Cautious and the Wrestlers bring us back to a bit of more classic punk. The three-piece have put out records through BDK Records themselves and are high energy, rolling through their exciting catalogue of 1-2 minute songs at high speed.

Brisbanites KNEE, another BDK Records band, are perhaps most emblematic of BDK’s venture into Sydney, as they’ve been brought along interstate with the label. Another three-piece, they alternate between their guitarist and bassist singing, as well as the drummer in a Spiderbait-esque style. The driving bass and drums lay the foundation well for the distorted guitar chords and melodies.

Finally we have the still relatively new, but growing cult favourites, Tee Vee Repairmann, headed by songwriter Ishka Edmeades. I’ve been a big fan of these guys since paying closer attention to them a couple of months ago. They’re definitely close to being the artist I’ve most listened to on streaming this year, if they aren’t already.

I saw them a couple of months ago at the Metro Theatre secondary stage, and yet again they sound unreal. It’s tremendously well-crafted punk with super catchy guitar melodies. Edmeades is super animated and facially expressive as he sings and is a captivating performer. Wrapping up on 11, you just want it to keep going. It’s such a more-ish brand of music.

With a diverse lineup of different sounds from different places, BDK’s first curated show in Sydney has been a lot of fun. You can feel the sense of community in the building as band members watch the music, before and after their own sets. It’s great that labels like BDK are putting on shows like this, and I hope the scene continues to evolve and grow across Sydney and Australia more broadly.