LIVE REVIEW - ROCK IS NOT DEAD 3
Prince Bandroom, St Kilda, Melbourne – 28 August 2026
There are gigs you go to because you want to see a band, and there are gigs you go to because there are four bands on the bill that you genuinely want to hear. Then, every once in a while, there are nights that remind you why you fell in love with this whole ridiculous thing in the first place. Friday night at the Prince Bandroom was one of those nights.
Rock Is Not Dead 3 finally brought the concept to Melbourne after its Queensland shows, with Friday’s ‘Female Fronted Rock’ bill comprising Karly Jewell Band, Empress + Aces, Riff Raiders and Cassidy Paris. That’s what it said on the poster, but in many ways that doesn’t really tell you what the night was about. For me, coming back to Melbourne after far too long away, this one was as much about the people as it was the music….
…Then came Riff Raiders, and suddenly we were somewhere else again. This was the point where the evening really started smelling of rock and roll. Riff Raiders have been doing this since 2017, and their own description of crunchy guitars, riffs and hooks is pretty much on the money. Friday was also significant because it marked their return to the stage around new album Welcome to Mars.
But forget descriptions for a moment because, fundamentally, Riff Raiders are fun, and somewhere along the line rock music became strangely embarrassed about admitting that fun is one of its fundamental ingredients. This is music with dirt underneath its fingernails: big riffs, choruses, movement and that wonderful sense that things might get slightly untidy before the song finishes. There’s classic rock in there, hard rock, pub rock and that peculiarly Australian understanding that sometimes a guitar riff doesn’t need a university degree — it just needs to make your head move.
The strength of Riff Raiders is that they understand their DNA without being trapped by it, and watching them in Melbourne, surrounded by so many people who have spent decades supporting this music, felt completely right. This wasn’t nostalgia. It was continuity, proof that the baton hasn’t been dropped.