Stand Atlantic, Annie Jump Cannon, Cliff Diver, Hot Mulligan

The Rialto Theatre, Tucson, Arizona

July 28, 2023

Review and Gallery By : Hannah Kelly

The show started on Friday night with Annie Jump Cannon, a band local to the Tucson scene. They’ve been playing shows in the area for years, even having played with the night’s headliner, Hot Mulligan, before. A few years ago they played a show with Hot Mulligan in a tattoo parlor to less than 30 people. Fast forward to tonight, they’re playing to a sold out crowd of 1,200 people. They flew through their set, which consisted of tunes that prepped the crowd for the rest of the night. One stand out moment of their set is when they released a slew of balloons into the crowd, all with drawings or little phrases written on them. A few of the balloons had references to the other bands on the bill, one saying “Coffee @ Midnight” which is the title of an older song by Stand Atlantic.

Next up was Cliff Diver, a band hailing from Tulsa, OK. The band has seven members in it, which made their sit both chaotic and enjoyable to watch. They had two singers, one female and one male, as well as a saxophone player who was responsible for the band’s dirty vocals. I would classify their sound as a mix of punk and ska, but I loved it! I can’t quite tell it if was because of all the people on stage, but the band had amazing stage presence. The band is very akin to Hot Mulligan in the way that they name their songs, playing ones like “Super Saiyan Al Pacino,” “Lost in IKEA,” and “Are You Still Seeing Graig, the Orthodontist.” All of which were great song, why the way. All in all, I loved their set and will definitely make time to see them next time they’re in town.

Next up was Stand Atlantic, the band of the hour for me. Stand Atlantic is a true pop punk band from Australia complete with a female lead singer, Bon. They started out their set strong, playing through songs “Doomsday,” “Jurassic Park,” and “Hair Out.” The band had spent the majority of the summer playing on Sad Summer and you could tell that they were in their groove and ready to go. They continued through their set, playing “Wavelength” and having the crowd form a large circle pit for it. After the song Bon let the crowd know that their band has two rules, don’t be a dick head and take care of each other. They then began a song off their newest album, that song being “Switchblade.” At this point I noted that even though I’ve seen Stand Atlantic a few other times before, it’s always been in smaller club venues and this venue is much bigger and has a much better sound system. The better sound system allowed me to really hear Bon’s dirt vocals, which sounded amazing and had tons of grit and depth to them.

Bon used the break after “Switchblade” to let the crowd know that this may be their favorite show of the entire tour, which made the crowd in Tucson go crazy. She then let the crowd know that they as Australians invented the shoey which she noted is the “most despicable thing that’s ever been invented.” A shoey is essentially where you take a drink out of a someone’s shoe. It’s pretty gross. Part of the band’s merch on this tour is a coozie in the shape a shoe, they’re calling it the shoezie. Bon then proceeded to do a shoe from one of the shoezies on stage. They then went into their next three songs, “Bloodclot,” “Deathwish,” and “Hate Me Sometimes.” Bon then let the crowd know they they had song left before they went into their song “Molotov [OK].” Bon was feeling it so much she even got into the crowd at the end of the song. I went into this show loving Stand Atlantic, but I think I love them move. I can’t wait to see what they do next and will definitely be seeing them whenever they come to Arizona next.

The show ended up Hot Mulligan, a band that originates from Lansing, Michigan. They’re what I would call classic pop punk and I’ve really grown to like them as of recently. They started their set by running through the songs “Drink Milk and Run,” ‘Shhhh! Golf is On,” and “OG Blue Sky.” The band’s lead singer, Nathan, performed most of the set with his long hair hiding his face. Even though I couldn’t see his face for the majority of the set, he was still incredibly fun to watch perform. He let the crowd know he wanted to get weird and asked for them to give him their weirdest dance moves ever. They then began to play a few more songs from their set including “*Equip Sunglasses,” “Deluxe Capacitor,” and “How Do You Know it’s Not Armadillo Shells?” Nathan then let the crowd know they were “getting high on the weirdometer, but now it’s time to get STRANGE.” They played the rest of their set to the sold out crowd, only having a few more interjections from Nathan. This was my first time ever seeing Hot Mulligan perform and I will definitely be seeing them later this fall on their headlining North American tour.