An ominous mist had intermingled with the reticulating streets and harsh lights of traffic as we stumbled out of Brunswick’s Bergy Bandroom, finding ourselves at the base of Sydney Road. Local alt-indie rock band Divers, had shredded the space with their clashing, unconstrained sound and we were set ablaze; delirious, galvanised and shell-shocked. Afters were certainly off the table, their show had been the full Friday night experience. 

Divers had mustered a rowdy crowd for the home-city gig of their debut album release tour on 26 June. Odd Dog in the Capital dropped almost a month earlier on 1 May, its title suggesting a fundamental aspect of Divers’ identity, they are the outsiders … but who isn't? Over the course of their musical career alt-rock non-conformity has become central to their brand and this gig was a sucker-punch culmination of who they’ve become.

The band who “love playing the bergy” had opened for indie-rock 5 piece Le Shiv earlier this year at the same venue. Already comfortable up on its stage, the listener and community support for the gig was inspiring and exciting to see. I remarked to them that their show felt like a reunion tour:  “It was pretty special” they said, “we are lucky to have always had such a good group of friends and family who have continued to support us. As well as many new friends we have made throughout the years, meeting them at shows … It’s probably the most important thing to us: sharing music with the people we love and connecting with new people over a shared love of live music … many of them who have been there since our first shows in 2021.”

With family, friends and new faces alike all showing up for the band from early gigs through to EP releases and all the way up to their Friday night headlining show, the band expressed that they felt: “ … at home and grateful to be in the position to keep playing [their] weird music to people.”

Along with the community support, the opening acts featured fellow Melbourne-based artists Romanie and Hot Glue, eliciting a sense of collective achievement and elation beyond the frothing crowd which infused into the cold night like a heatwave. I unfortunately missed indie-rock three piece Hot Glue’s set, but was granted witness to Romanie’s incredible stage presence. The Belgium born artist, who recently gained Australian citizenship earlier this year, delivered a beautiful and genuine Acknowledgement of Country. Her set sported a crisp indie-pop style with vocals I’d describe as that of a fallen angel, matching her blonde and brown halo hair dye. Romanie’s crowd engagement and charisma was wonderful to watch as she guided the wobbly audience—which contained some borderline hecklers—into the headlining act.

On their choice of openers, the band said: “We wanted to play alongside music we love, and we absolutely love Hot Glue and Romanie. Both of their recent albums are incredible and it means absolutely everything to play alongside such talented people …”

Hot Glue released their album Again, Again on 17 April. Romanie’s debut It’s Not That Funny came out on 20 February, delivering a heartfelt and tender unfurling of her inner emotional world. 

Kicking off with an unkempt but nonetheless amusing walk-out song, Divers members Ben, Scott, Jake and Tom entered the stage to a synthy 1980s style tune.

This moment echoed what I saw the entirety of the set: their wonderful kinship. As long time mates, they share the stage harmoniously.

On this they said: “We try to play to each other's strengths and help each other in all aspects where we can  … [we] have a no bad ideas policy too and try to see all ideas through …It's also special when your friend shows you a personal song they've written and you learn a bit more about them.” 

The hype song spoke to the importance of humor and play as crucial to Divers’ creative practice and experimental sound: “It was pretty funny (to us at least), during the week Scott and Tom thought it'd be funny to make a hype intro track for the show, we wanted to try something new that we hadn't done before.”

They also featured some “onstage cameos” including a butcher they’re now mates after he appeared in the “Head Chef” music video and the iconic tree-man from “The Great Tree” who snuck onto stage.

Frontman Ben Bray said, “... that one I wasn't aware of but it was so good to see a grown man in a tree costume appear out of nowhere mid song.”

Set sights high, “Cruisy Confusion” soared through the space as the perfect opening song. The crunchy track flaunts a burnished arrangement of groaning guitar riffs. An exemplar of the bands effortless welding of clashing genres through its strong surf-rock, grunge adjacent tones and electronic indie style beats, generating a sweet-n-sour sound. Their larky and boyish lyrics suit the smoky timbre of Bray’s vocals. The bands unique sound carving its own distinct space in Melbourne’s vibrant and incessantly unfurling music scene. 

A handful of Odd Dog’s freshly cut tracks followed suit. “Blue Paint”, “Health Freak” and “Sand Dunes” crawled into our ears like bugs. “Blue Paint” plotted a duller slowcore indie riff that suited its ghostly and distorted vocals and tune which was paired with a ripper of a bridge. “Sand Dunes” was haunting to hear live, a song that sounds both completely new yet eerily nostalgic. 

Their single “Lost With You”, released in 2019 in their EP Economy Class, returned the OG listeners in the audience to the typical restless and thrashing space the band has emerged from.

The remaining songs caught the uninitiated up to speed, finishing off the set with a sampler of Odd Dog’s remaining tracks. Divers tossed us through “Plans”, “Beep Beep” and “The Mouse”, all showcasing their rowdy raw talent. “Beep Beep”’s more harsh sound riled the audience whilst the more pop-infused song “The Mouse” refreshed us with its sickly synthy and electronic clamor undercut by its upbeat tone.

For an encore the band played an unruly rendition of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. Not knowing the original verses lyrics, Bray turned the mic to the crowd, who sang back in rapt mumbles. At this point their gig felt like garage-sesh, Divers were the highschool trouble-makers smashing about at someone’s parent’s place and the crowd was rowdy and unprepared for the imminent comedown.

As long-time performers, being up on-stage fuels the development of their sound and is a time for jamming out with all kinds of tunes. Odd Dog was a long time coming for the misfit four. On its story and concept, drummer Tom wrote: “We have always felt like outsiders in the Naarm scene, sitting somewhere between indie rockers and post punkers, so the title represents that notion. We made a large number of demos and we had multiple styles floating around. We decided that The Great Tree and Head Chef deserve to be finished … [then] we chose the rest of the songs from the demo pile that we felt fit into that space.”

Whilst on their journey to discover their own musical niche in the untethered Melbourne scene, Ben said: “We spent a lot of time making music we thought we “should” make, basically trying to do what other bands we looked up to were doing with our own spin on it … but making more generic music started feeling like a chore and we were having so much fun making the music we weren’t planning to release.”

Odd Dog in the Capital became their venture into musical self-discovery, “ … we decided to just try and stay true to ourselves and release what we thought was cool and interesting … We understood it was weird and didn’t quite fit in anywhere so we had little expectation of it finding an audience.” 

Yet if their gig at the Bergy can attest to anything, it's that unusual and out-of-the-box music can and will always find its crowd. 

For the boys, the gig was a highlight of their highly anticipated tour, it was “... probably the most fun show we’ve ever played and one I think we will remember forever. Feeling so grateful for everyone coming and just having a good time with us. There was definitely something special about that night but I’m not sure I've explained it well enough cos I actually don’t know what or why.”

As for what's next, the band’s album release tour will continue into July and with a further few gigs coming up later this year. Some members also have some exciting travel plans. 

For the meanwhile, Scott said:  “When we’re not making music we are probably hanging out, or going for a walk or something. When we’re not doing that most of us are working for the man as tradies, not Tommy though, he’s an audio guy.”

Divers at the Bergy offered a defiant peep into the band's out-of-place sound, egging on a mixed crowd with rougish excitement that could cause a searing hangover. I would be surprised if the band weren’t nursing harsh headaches for the remainder of the weekend.