Review: The Buzz Lovers at Freo.Social

The Buzz Lovers at Freo.Social
w/ Brain Stew, Renegades of Rock
Friday, May 15, 2026

If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, then the admiration The Buzz Lovers have for Nirvana must be off the charts.

Those who gathered at Freo.Social last Friday shared a Nirvana experience with this tribute band that was so close to the real thing that it almost felt eerie at times, in their second visit to Australia in as many years.

Few of those there probably got to see Nirvana live before Kurt Cobain sadly committed suicide in 1994, but The Buzz Lovers took the crowd, some of whom weren’t born when grunge changed the music world, back to their meteoric rise in the early 90s and did it in style on their Best of Nirvana tour.

The night started with another tribute fan in the form of Brain Stew, who got the crowd going with a tight set of Green Day covers.

They covered a host of their beloved classics, including most of their biggest tracks, such as When I Come Around, Welcome to Paradise and the one that gave the Perth trio its name.

They were followed by Renegades of Rock, who thrilled the gathering crowd with a set of Silverchair classics, reminding us all that Australia had its own world-class grunge acts.

Songs like Tomorrow and Pure Massacre attracted plenty of audience involvement and set the scene nicely for what was to follow.

The night was sold out, and there was a sense of anticipation as The Buzz Lovers took to the stage, and the optics were instantly undeniable.

They certainly looked the part, with the lead singer bearing an uncanny resemblance to Kurt Cobain, while the bassist had the same imposing size as Krist Novoselic.

Kurt reincarnated absolutely looked the part with a brown cardigan over a T-shirt that read “Tribute bands still suck”.

What the real Kurt would have made of The Buzz Lovers is hard to know, as he seemingly wasn’t a huge fan of tribute acts, but then he also had an ABBA cover band open for Nirvana once.

That trivial side issue didn’t matter to the crowd, though, who embraced the nostalgia and were just happy to wind the clock back 30 years to hear Nirvana classics being played exactly as they are remembered over the next couple of hours.

From the moment the first notes of Breed were played until the night finished with a solo rendition of Where Did You Sleep Last Night, The Buzz Lovers were as convincing as any tribute band could be, taking the crowd back to the heyday of grunge.

The trio have clearly studied their idols extremely closely and have the mannerisms absolutely perfected down to some of the smallest details, such as the lead singer’s facial expressions that captured that awkward shyness Cobain had despite being one of the world’s biggest rock stars.

It was at a point where you could almost think the real Nirvana had somehow been resurrected until they spoke between songs with thick European accents or when you noticed that Kurt reincarnated played his guitar right-handed rather than with the left.

Their relentless energy drew the crowd in, as they honoured every song with perfect renditions, including vocals that perfectly emulated and captured the throaty growl and angst of Cobain.

To complete the package, the lead singer would simply say a quiet “thanks” after each song, just as Cobain often used to.

To say The Buzz Lovers’ commitment to honour Nirvana is total would probably be to undersell it, such was their precision with the task at hand, which is a little ironic given that Cobain lived to create chaos on stage.

At the end of the day, though, all the little details would not matter if the music wasn’t perfect, and The Buzz Lovers gave the crowd exactly what it wanted throughout with a blistering set list that harked back to the Live! Tonight! Sold Out! video brought out after Cobain’s death.

From the opening notes, it was as close to perfection as almost any Nirvana fan could want, including every track off the epic 1991 breakthrough album, Nevermind, that made the band a household name and changed many of our lives.

While Nevermind tracks formed the backbone of the performance, there were also some deeper cuts to please the hardcore fans, and all were performed flawlessly and with the necessary energy and intensity.

The pounding drums of Aneurysm were an early highlight, while a solo version of Polly allowed the lead singer to showcase how close to Cobain’s his voice is.

The guitar work that drives Nirvana was spot on as they rolled through a swag of classics, with every song greeted with rapturous applause by the crowd.

Rape Me was a crowd favourite early, as was Heart-Shaped Box, while Molly’s Lips, All Apologies, About A Girl, and Been a Son slid in nicely among the regular Nevermind tracks, and the Unplugged show was showcased by The Man Who Sold the World.

Coming late in the set, Smells Like Teen Spirit was exactly as popular as you’d expect, driving the crowd of mainly 50-somethings back into a frenzy of youthful angst for a few minutes.

There were plenty of opportunities to sing along to classic Nirvana, which peaked when Kurt reincarnated sang “I’m so happy ’cause today I found my friends,” and almost the entire crowd joined him on vocals for the entirety of Lithium.

It was always coming, and the song that gave the band its name was part of the encore.

Throw in some crowd surfing by the lead singer and you had the complete Nirvana experience, right down to the humming feedback of a guitar placed against the speaker after the last song, as was Cobain’s trademark.

As the crowd filed back out into the chilly Fremantle night air after a memorable evening, a teenage fan summed it up perfectly.

“I will never get to see Nirvana, but that is surely as close as I will ever get.”

SCOTT COGHLAN