The Brian Jonestown Massacre
This is the next part of my report on the rock gig in Melbourne on 27 March 2026. I’ve already written about the brilliant Swedish band Les Big Byrd, who opened the night. The main act was the legendary, scandalous, and flat-out amazing The Brian Jonestown Massacre—usually just called BJM or Jonestown.
I spent ages thinking about what to write, digging through old articles, watching interviews, and listening to the music. In the end, I decided to say next to nothing. It’s not my place to try and sum up the greats. It’d be like trying to squeeze Shakespeare or Pink Floyd into a couple of paragraphs—you just can’t do it justice, right?
BJM aren’t Shakespeare, of course. But still, they’re a great rock band that’s already carved out their place in music history. So I’ll leave the full story to the pros — and just keep it short here, and let the photos do the talking.
The Brian Jonestown Massacre was founded in San Francisco in 1990 by Anton Newcombe. The band’s name is a mash-up of Brian Jones — the late guitarist from The Rolling Stones — and the Jonestown Massacre, where around 900 members of a religious cult died in a mass suicide.
The band became known not just for their great music, but also for their chaotic behaviour — drugs, on-stage fights, and all sorts of wild antics. Anton Newcombe himself went through alcohol and drug addiction, along with mental health struggles. Still, he never stopped making music.
When everything is stripped back, Anton lives for the music. He’s constantly writing and collaborating. These days he’s based in Berlin with his own studio, where he works on his own stuff and brings in other musos, like Les Big Byrd.
The current lineup, apart from Anton, includes:
- guitarist Ricky Maymi, one of the founding members, a really nice guy
- tambourine extraordinaire Joel Gion, another founding member, famous for his impressive sideburns
- guitarist Håkon Aðalsteinsson, an Icelandic bloke
- multi-instrumentalist Norwegian Emil Nikolaisen, complete with his trademark hat and poncho
- bassist Hallberg Hallbergsson. I’d hire him just for his name!
- drummer Tobias Humble
Anton has a bit of a notorious reputation thanks to widely reported on-stage incidents and the well-known documentary Dig!. In real life though, he comes across as an intelligent, decent bloke — easy to talk to and a generous host who can whip up a proper feast for 20 people.
That night in Melbourne, he was in a great mood and dropped by the production office before the show for a chat and to tell a joke.
The show went off—the sound and lights were spot on. The crowd loved it, and so did the band. Although, after the set, Ricky the guitarist came into the office fuming. He was swearing like a trooper about a dodgy amp. To be honest, no one else noticed any issues with the sound, but the musos know best.
I enjoyed it too — both the music and taking photos. Musicians are great to shoot: the emotions are full-on, and they really feed off the crowd. The lighting was brutal, of course, but my Nikon handles low light just fine, and I know how to work in those conditions. Turned out pretty well.
And a couple of short video clips:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/147740420@N06/88Jb4P22Dy
https://www.flickr.com/gp/147740420@N06/76xgT9035q
I’m not sure if the photos were passed on to the band (quite possible, actually), but the concert organisers were really happy with them. They’ve already invited me to shoot the next gig.
I’m not posting the high-res photos here. If you’re interested commercially, feel free to get in touch and we can work something out.
But I will repost some shots I took at that infamous The Brian Jonestown Massacre gig at the Forum Theatre back in 2023.
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