“This is the biggest headline show we’ve ever played,” Swapmeet bassist Josh Doherty announced to a jam-packed room at Baby’s All Right on Oct. 22. Just a few months ago, this very buzzy Australian indie band was visiting New York for the first time ever;
now, they were back for two sold-out club shows in the city. Fans came out in force to see the four friends from Adelaide play songs from their 2024 EP, Oxalis, and their recent full-length debut, Mount Zero. Swapmeet sounded fantastic, even with one of their three singer-guitarists, Maxwell Elphick, having lost his voice earlier in the day. “I tried not to talk the whole day, and it was so hard,” Elphick told the crowd at the Brooklyn club, sounding only a little croaky. “I love talking. It’s my favorite thing to do!”
A few hours before taking the stage, Doherty, Elphick, Venus O’Broin, and Jack Medlyn joined Rolling Stone to catch us up on their exciting year and drop some hints about what’s next. Elphick, who was still trying to preserve his voice, communicated by typing notes on his phone. Asked how exactly he lost his voice, he handed the phone to O’Broin: “He says, “Not even from singing. I don’t sing that loud,'” she read aloud. “Yeah, true. I think it’s probably just from talking to these guys nonstop for two weeks.”
The show, which also featured a wild opening set from rising Nashville band Baby Wave, was yet more proof that indie rock is alive and well in the 2020s. Below, you’ll find our best photos from the night, plus our interview with the delightful Aussie foursome.
Photos by Griffin Lotz
Interview by Simon Vozick-Levinson
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