The up and coming Brisbane rock’n’roll quartet, Port Royal, have meticulously been working on writing sold tunes and putting on great, energetic performances for the two years which I have had the pleasure of seeing them play. Since their conception they have released a solid EP, which has gained significant airplay on community radios and more recently, a brand new track about accepting the decadence of being a youth in revolt called Get Heavy - this being the single that they were touring in support of at the Woolly Mammoth with their mates Roadhouse.

The legitimacy of the hype for this up and coming band is evident even in the mere buzz that I felt walking into the Woolly Mammoth. A solid crowd was filling the room for Roadhouse, a mixture of both new and familiar faces and a definite pulsating excitement in the air. From the moment that Roadhouse took the stage to a bunch of cheers the crowd seemed to be digging them from the get go to the finish. However, for me there was just something missing in Roadhouse. Technically, as musicians they're wonderful at what they do. They can definitely play their instruments, and their lead singer has a really powerful voice, but I couldn't help but have the feeling that I’ve heard these songs many times before, with each song reminiscent to the classics of rock that were covered by older bands at the local which I frequented at a younger age. These guys played well, and put on a good show, but I would just love to see what they could do if they experimented a bit more with their sound, shying further away from the conventional and creating something that made Roadhouse unique, a sound which they could coin as their own.

About five minutes after Roadhouse clicked their amps off, the room was echoing with chatter and enthusiasm for Port Royal. The crowd filling up from what I estimated to be fifty odd people for Roadhouse to a number that was easily over the one hundred mark. Coming out onto the stage and oozing with charisma, Port Royal jumped straight into Feels Like Bliss and continued to play their own take of high octane rock’n’roll that the community has grown to love over the past few years.

As they ploughed through their set, playing their hits such as Hey You and newbies like my personal favourite, Lucy, lead singer Lawson Doyle went from from yelling at the crowd between songs to writhing on the the floor, Chase Brodie danced around and jumped off the drum pillar, Brennan O’Neill chilled under a false enigma until he would break out into a belting solo and Connor Arnold smacked the drums as tightly as ever, seemingly never missing a beat. The show peaked when the first chords of their premiering single, Get Heavy, dropped. The signature puppet used in their video making an appearance and getting the crowd rowdy enough to jump and stage and have a dance. For what was meant to be the end of the show, the crowd bellowed for them to get back on stage, and they did, to play their classics, Everyday is a Chance and Dirty Boy, which the crowd absolutely frothed over.

Rock’n’roll aint dead.

Kacper Majchrowski