When was the last time you went to a gatho?

On Sunday March 12th, SUBCULTURE?, Heaps Normal and Tiki La La teamed up to bring the community our activation for Long Jetty Festival, called Tiki's Backyard Gatho featuring locals Bigfoot & The Falcons, Dipodium, Hardcore Punkers Rage, Newcastle's dream-pop band Soyboy and Bedroom-pop band Sugar Soap.

Let me walk you through it, so you can imagine how you were there! 

On Sunday morning at 8am, myself [Jonny Blackwell of SUBCULTURE?] alongside Heath and April of Tiki La La - post Orange Juice, Large Iced Oat Latte and Bacon McMuffin we opened the doors of Tiki La La, and started to set up the Gatho. 

You say what's a gatho? --- well our creative director Ash, said that's what you called gatherings growing up on the Central Coast, so we went with that.

It was a steamer of a day as the bands rolled in for soundcheck at 10am, and the streets started to fill up with punters getting ready for the day festival featuring The Ruben, Meg Mac, Little Quirks, Stupid Baby + more. 

Our friends at Heaps Normal sorted us out with a shipment of their new Hazy 0.5% Beer, as I tried to keep them as cool as possible without the sun melting the ice away as I filled up the eskys prior to the first band starting.

Up first was Bigfoot & The Falcons, a local band from the area that I came across on Instagram some months before, this band is young, and these kids are serious about their rock'n'roll riffs, and fronted by the great Milana (@saint_milana). The vocals were huge, and they had a solid base of family and friends there from 11am when their set started.

Then we had Bedroom Indie Pop band Sugar Soap, a 2-Piece Duo from the area. Heath from Tiki La La introduced me to these lads awhile back, as we share similar music interests. Honestly incredible set for just two guys, and please please check them out if you haven't, and are looking to find a great band from the Central Coast, and beyond.

Around midday, we had Psych-Rock band Dipodium perform songs from "Terrestrial Connection" and their 2022 single "Harmony Of Spheres''. This band is very cool, making some really cool lo-fi psych music, i came across them randomly online, but they are made up of members of Newcastle Band Fungus and Central Coast band Soy. I'll definitely be getting them back in soon!

By this point it was about 2pm, and the sun was melting everywhere between drinks as the empty hole of a backyard was filling up with tattooed friends from the area, Hardcore-Band, now Punk-Emo band Rage graced the stage performing songs from their 2022 Resist Records release "Want To Feel" and even through in a Beastie Boys cover of "Fight For your Right" off the 1986 classic "Licensed to Ill" --- If your a fan of Pennywise, Guttermouth and Drug Church, your gonna love Rage. They are another band that our team at SUBCULTURE works across for Management and Creative Direction.

Lastly we had Newcastle Indie Dream-Pop band Soyboy with closing out the Gatho, at this point in the day the last of the Heaps Normal was finishing up, and the ice had completely melted and everybody's buzz had properly kicked in. I came across Soyboy about 6-month ago after finding them on Triple J's Unearthed, and reached out. Our team at SUBCULTURE? has been working with them for a little while now, and they recently released an incredible music video shot on Super8 for "ETA", please check them out if you haven't --- Very Very good Band.

After 4pm we all ran down to catch our good friends in Stupid Baby play the Six Strings Stage before visiting our friends at Goons at Upstairs Wine, and closing off the day at the Jetty Pub.

If you did make it to the Backyard Gatho, thank you for coming ~~~ If you didn't make it, please stay tuned for more Long Jetty, and surrounding area activities with our friends at Heaps Normal in the near future!

Thanks to Tiki La La, Long Jetty Festival, Rigatoni For Toni, Heaps Normal, and all the bands that performed!