Way back in 1997 I was at a free festival in Sydney called Grudge Fest which featured Bush, Grinspoon, Bloodhoud Gang and American grunge rockers Veruca Salt. The teenage version of myself had quite the crush on Nina and Louise of Veruca Salt and I remember being absolutely blown away by the energy of their live performance.

Now fast forward over 20 years I will finally be seeing Veruca Salt again this time it’s in 2018 at the Metro Theatre in Sydney. It’s officially the first day of Autumn and as I head up the stairs to the Metro I can’t help wondering what will the gig be like, how will they sound and will they capture the same energy as all those years ago.

The Metro was packed with eager grunge rock fans as the duo of Nina and Louise took to the stage to huge cheers and applause from the crowd. The girls kicked straight into “Wolf” and soon after bass player Steve and drummer Jim joined them mid song. This set the pace for the entire night as their songs were loud, relentless and raw. Both Nina and Louise were truly captivating on stage to the point where you didn’t know which one to focus on. Both of their voices were incredible live and if you closed you eyes you were transported all the way back to the 90’s.

Big crowd favourite song highlights came in the form of “Seether” and “Volcano Girls”. The setlist itself was a massive twenty songs which more than satisfied the appreciative Sydney crowd. Veruca Salt even stopped to mention that they played the venue twenty years ago and checked if anyone from the audience was at that show. Whilst I would of been too young to be there quite a few hands went up.

Walking away from the gig I can safely say my Veruca Salt crush is still intact after all these years. Nina and Louise are both gorgeous and extremely talented. It was not just a night of nostalgia Veruca Salt’s newer songs stacked up just as well as the older ones when played live. So Veruca Salt thank you for an amazing night and please come back soon to shimmer across the Sydney stage again.