DESCENDENTS, PINCH POINTS, THE SHORTS – THE FORUM MELBOURNE

Review: Craig Eriksson. Photos: Mary Boukouvalas

After a successful 2023 Australian tour, Southern California’s punk rockers Descendents returned to our shores on their Run Down Under ’26 Tour, celebrating 30 years of Everything Sucks with special guests Pinch Points and The Shorts as supports for their Forum Theatre gig.

Ballarat-based punk trio The Shorts performed a delightful set of fast-paced, raw Aussie punk originals and were a refreshing opening act for fans. Borrowing from the spirit of The Living End or The Offspring, they dished out their own Aussie/So-Cal style punk energy. The band created a feel-good atmosphere with their friendly stage banter. Their set featured tracks from their latest release Bunker Monkey (2026), which sounded great. The Shorts even performed a Fleetwood Mac cover of Go Your Own Way.

Melbourne-based indie pop rockers Pinch Points emerged on stage all wearing matching band tees and played an energetic, fun set of originals. I was completely mesmerised by their drummer ‘Issy’ who unleashed a barrage of sound on the drums and sang a number of their songs. Directly in front of me was lead guitarist and vocalist Adam Smith who was impressive and played tight and clean guitar lines. Centre stage, Acacia Coates bopped around stage playing bass and sang lead vocals on a few songs with Jordan Oakley on guitar providing backing vocals. The crowd loved this band and were showing their appreciation by jumping and moshing along to their music. Standout songs were Reasons to Anxious, Copper, Ouches 1 & 2 and Spelt Out.

The Descendents were formed back in 1977 in Manhattan Beach, California by guitarist Frank Navetta, bassist Tony Lombardo and drummer Bill Stevenson , initially as a pop/surf punk band. When Milo Aukerman joined them in 1979 as their vocalist the band’s music evolved into a melodic hardcore punk sound. The band has had a few line-up changes with Milo and Bill remaining in the band and are currently joined by Karl Avarez (bass) and Stephen Egerton (guitar). Everything Sucks was released in 1996 and the front cover is defined by its iconic line drawing of ‘Milo’, the short, spiked crewcut hair caricature, depicted reading a newspaper that says Everything Sucks.

Descendents emerged on stage and frontman Milo immediately thanked everyone for coming out and told us that they’d be celebrating the 30^th Anniversary of Everything Sucks and would play the entire album (15 songs) “but not in the order as they appear on the album as that would be boring and just weird”. They launched straight into EVERYTHING SUX followed by their pop-punk anthem I’M THE ONE, with its hook-filled guitar riffs and driving drumbeats which the crowd latched onto from the get-go.

I was completely blown away with the stamina of these punk rock veterans as they blasted their way through an all killer, no filler, massive 34-song setlist over 75 minutes at breakneck pace, smashing out song after song, barely stopping for a breather. Milo has a dynamic stage presence and the band performs at a blistering, high tempo pace, led by drummer Bill Stevenson, who maintains an effortless, high-velocity surf/punk beat while Alvarez and Egerton’s playing is incredibly tight.

Most of their songs are very short, fast and sweet and just kept rolling out. It was wonderful hearing Descendents play tracks from Everything Sucks. Some of the fan faves from the album were COFFEE MUG, ROTTING OUT, WHEN I GET OLD, DOGHOUSE, EUNECH BOY. Much to the delight of fans, the Descendents also performed a career-spanning set of fan favourites and live staples including a number of tracks from Milo Goes to College (1982) with MYAGE, BIKEAGE, HOPE, I’M NOT A PUNK and SUBURBAN HOME. The crowd had a circle pit running through most of these songs and I noticed a guy in a wheelchair was in there with them too. A special moment in the show saw the crowd carefully lift his wheelchair above a sea of hands during I WANNA BE A BEAR, as he crowd surfed his way to the front of stage. Milo noticed him and pointed him out and had a huge grin on his face as he raised his fist in the air displaying a sign of respect.

CLEAN SHEETS was a killer song with the quirky chorus: “Those sheets are dirty and so are you.” GOOD GOOD THINGS from I Don’t Want To Grow Up (1985) kept the rapid fire vibe blazing along with the album’s title track. MY DAD SUCKS was performed as a 30-second burst of raw, hyper-fast punk that created mayhem amongst fans. They performed a 5-song encore with SILLY GIRL being a standout and one of my personal favourites for the evening.

Descendents relished in the moment creating a fierce community spirit. They delivered a visceral, sweat-drenched blur of high-speed riffs and melodic punk rock anthems showing no sign of slowing down after a 40+ career. They still have more dates to come while they are on this AUS/NZ tour, so try and get along to one of their shows as you will have an absolute blast.

REMAINING DATES
Mon, June 8: The Gov, Adelaide
Tue, June 9: Astor, Perth
Thu, June 11: Roundhouse, Sydney
Fri, June 12: Tivoli, Brisbane
Sat, June 13: The Balcony (Coolangatta Hotel), Gold Coast
Tue, June 16: Meow Nui, Wellington
Wed, June 17: Powerstation, Auckland

https://arep.co/p/descendents-australia–nz-2026-tour

SET LIST:
EVERYTHING SUCKS
I’M THE ONE
COFFEE MUG
ROTTING OUT
MYAGE
HOPE
CLEAN SHEETS
SICK-O-ME
CAUGHT
GOOD GOOD THINGS
NO FAT BURGER
WHEN I GET OLD
DOGHOUSE
GET THE TIME
MY DAD SUCKS
SHE LOVES ME
WEINERSCHNITZEL
NO, ALL!
HATEFUL NOTEBOOK
I WANNA BE A BEAR
WE
EUNUCH BOY
BIKEAGE
I’M NOT A PUNK
THIS PLACE
I WON’T LET ME
I LIKE FOOD
SUBURBAN HOME
THANK YOU