Boombox Bootscoot at Plant 4 Bowden is not so much a show as a vibrant, neon-lit fever dream where retro country collides headlong with wild 80s and 90s bangers. Forget your usual bootscootin’ fare, this Adelaide-based 6-piece band crafts an experience that’s equal parts performance art, nostalgia trip, and raucous party. The stage is an explosion of double denim, banjo, and fiddle, with Minnie and Shelby’s vocals spiralling above the yells, the twang of Jake’s banjo, and Crafty holding court in mythic style on guitar and drums. It’s a musical kaleidoscope: from A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’ to Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’, every track is contorted into country shapes, twisted by clever musical arrangements that shimmer with tongue-in-cheek bravado.

This year’s edition ups the ante, reaching back into the 80s & 90s for an unexpectedly subversive medley, TV themes, grunge riffs, and AC/DC’s ‘Thunderstruck’ stitched together with boot-scooters El and Taylah from Saddle and Stomp, whose infectious energy spills off the stage. Audience dress-ups are not just encouraged, they are essential, as the crowd becomes part of the spectacle, swept into a free dance lesson that blurs the line between observer and participant. Even the setlist is half remembered in the haze of fun, proof that this is a show best experienced, not dissected.

Boombox Bootscoot is a riotous ode to nostalgia, a love letter to the absurd, and a night out that refuses to take itself seriously. Throw on your cowboy hat, lace up your boots, and let yourself get lost in the stomp.

Cheryl Lee – That Radio Chick