11 DECEMBER 2020 | FRIDAY | 8.00PM

EASTERN LOUNGE DECEMBER SHOW

Our next show – our last for 2020 - is on Friday, December 11… and it’s going to be a PARTY! That night, we’re theming Eastern Lounge ‘Tropical Jungle’ as we welcome a mysterious headline band that had its beginnings deep in the dark heart of the Caribbean!

Early this year, RUFINO & THE COCONUTS were cast upon Australian shores just prior to the global pandemic closing our borders. To our eternal good fortune, they’ve been landlocked here ever since and only now have been allowed out of quarantine to bring their amazing show to music-starved Aussies on Sydney’s north shore.

The Coconuts’ sheer joy in playing permeates their time on stage and will be the perfect way for Eastern Loungers to rid ourselves of this lamentable year, once and for all! 

This final show for 2020 will be a voyage of discovery, with teenage Indie Pop sensations THE RIONS opening the show. Young, brash, infectious, FUN – all words that describe these award-winning boys from the beaches.

We encourage you to dress ‘Tropical Jungle’ to match the way we’re dressing the room. Come and join us as together we set sail for a better 2021 with an all-out Jungle Jam!

"Rufino & The Coconuts tell tall tales of Caribbean dentists, jungle misadventures, menacing crayfish, voodoo rituals and near-death love affairs, all delivered with a bone rattling backbeat. "

- What's My Scene

Never has Eastern Lounge played host to a band like RUFINO & THE COCONUTS. Their back story beggars belief and stems largely from the exhilarating escapades of band leader Rufino the Catalan Casanova. "I'm not boasting," he says, "that's just my name." 

This larger than life character with his pinstripe moustache and rakish hat was once renowned for playing such melancholy violin that dogs would bury themselves, brides would marry in black and grown men would hold crying competitions. That all changed when he nearly drowned while making violent love in a dinghy during his time with European Kabaret ensemble, Mikelangelo and the Black Sea Gentlemen.

Chased from that community by truncheon-bearing brigands, he was taken by troubled winds, a mutinous crew and a wrecked boat on a new and treacherous course into the dark heart of the Caribbean. Yet in these tropical climes, his voice became an infinitely more jovial instrument than his fiddle, (possibly due to his consorting with the sort of women who play maracas).  

By sheer chance, he came across a crew of castaways and misfits in the fertile rhythm-rich jungles of Haiti and, sufficiently desperate for a gambling stake, he formed his own band: The Coconuts. These desperados now provide a brooding island backbeat to Rufino’s Euro-melodic stylings. The result is part Afro-Latin Groove, part Jamaican Rock-Steady, part tropical holiday Sleaze Pop – all wrapped up in a wild Voodoo ritual!

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"Without going too much into comparisons, The Rions have an Arctic Monkeys kinda vibe. They're definitely a band you'll love if you're a fan of Indie Surf Pop."

- What's New Then U.K.

THE RIONS (sounds like ‘Lions’ but with an ‘R’) are 4 teenagers from the Northern Beaches who met in High School and formed for a school talent quest about 4 years ago. Under the guidance of music teacher John Stone (father of Angus & Julia Stone), they started performing in their local area at the age of 13. 

Influenced by the local sound of bands like Lime Cordiale and Spacey Jane as well as others such as Dayglow and Arctic Monkeys, The Rions have already had three of their songs featured on Triple J Unearthed and recently won the Audience Choice Award in the Northern Composure Under 19 Band Comp.

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