With no member sporting hair shorter than shoulder-length, The Bennies, all the way from Melbourne, Australia, arrived Sunday at 924 Gilman St in a rental car with guitars in hand.

“What’s in there that they don’t want us to see?” asked lead vocalist Anty, noticing a chained-off business in the back alleyway of the venue.

“Doesn’t look like something I’d want to go in anyway, or maybe it’s a guitar factory and I would like to go in there!” bassist Craig chimed in.

Band members asked that their last names remain undisclosed.

The Bennies took the stage with borrowed instruments and a sound so loud and booming that it belonged at a festival. Synchronized head bangs accompanied the beats to their songs with their shoulder-length hair swinging along made for an energetic stage show.

So far, The Bennies have gotten by just fine borrowing instruments from bands at each stop, and are very grateful for the bands that let them borrow along the way.

“I don’t think that sentiment echos in other genres. I know it doesn’t happen in metal, pretty sure it doesn’t happen in straight-up cock rock,” said Craig. “Punk rock is a real kinship, and it’s pretty awesome.”

Describing themselves as “Psychedelic Reggae Ska Doom Metal Punk Rock From Hell,” The Bennies have their hands in plenty of styles of music, but this particular show was labeled a ska night.

“There’s no ska scene,” said Anty of the genre in Australia. “There’s a few bands that play, definitely, but not like a vibrant ska scene at all. It’s more of a family than a scene.”

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Melbourne, one of the southernmost cities in Australia, is considered the musical hub of the country.

“Bands that want to push it a bit further move to Melbourne,” said Anty.

The chance to play an all ages show “pretty much doesn’t exist in Australia, they’re really hard to do,” said Anty.

In Australia, the drinking age is 18, so many bars put on bands as an after-thought because they are more concerned with making their money off of alcohol, whereas they would lose that money if they opened these shows to people younger than 18, Anty explained.

However, The Bennies are familiar with the experience of playing to younger kids that seem to be just discovering new styles of music.
“I believe that all-ages gigs are extremely important. We grew up going to all ages gigs ourselves [before many of the laws changed],” said Craig. “It’s an important part of getting into bands.”

“Adults, you have more freedoms than you do as an underage person to do what you want to do and explore the ideas that you want to,” said Anty. “When you’re underage, you’re really limited, and I think gigs are a really, really, healthy, positive outlet for people who are underage.”

The curious Australian group is on its first US tour. Playing mostly in Southern California on their West Coast run, Berkeley is their only Northern California stop before jumping on a 7 a.m. flight to New York to start the East Coast leg of the tour.

“Its amazing to be here, soaking up the history [of 924 Gilman St.] and putting our stamp on it,” said Anty.

The Bennies did not get much time to explore the Bay Area.

Spending a total of 12 hours in Northern California, most of their time was spent playing their set, and looking for a bag that would be strong enough to hold and protect their merchandise on the six-hour flight to New York.

“In terms of places that we would love to check out, San Francisco and Berkeley are like the highest on the list, and we’re spending less than 12 hours in the whole area,” said Craig.

Touring in the US has a few differences compared to their native home of Australia. “Here, it’s interesting that you need a car no matter what,” said Anty. “In Australia, you can fly in to Brisbane, get a taxi to your venue, take public transportation around, and get a flight home, you don’t need to touch a car that isn’t yours.”

The Bennies will continue its US tour in New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida before returning home to support California punk legends NOFX on an Australian national tour that runs through the middle of November.