All That’s In My Head: The Vanns Concert Review

We’re back at The Princess Theatre tonight for another show to celebrate Aus Music Month! Tonight, we’re joining The Vanns on their album tour for this year’s release, All That’s In My Head. I’ve been warming up on their new and old tracks this week, so to see it all live is sure to be an incredible experience. To make things even better, we have TWO fantastic (relatively) local acts beforehand.

So, this is what happened at The Vanns’ All That’s In My Head show at the Princess Theatre on November 8th, 2025.

NANA’S PIE

I’m going to get it over and done with: this was a band as sweet as pie and I will be at as many of their shows as I can make it to! Although they entered with a bit of a quiet pause, they quickly launched into a phenomenal set that highlighted their passion, charm and incredible talent. The band features Tyler Hammill, Nash Hindmarsh and Adam Hindmarsh as a cohesive trio who are great at adding to each other’s energetic performance and constantly taking the show to the next level. I especially loved their ability to constantly surprise by subverting the expected flow of the instrumentations and quickly whip to something else that excited and intrigued, keeping me hooked on their sound and looking out for what was next to come! If you haven’t heard Nana’s Pie before tonight, you’re missing out on something sweet!

Fave song: Fool For You

MID DRIFT

Up next to play was Brisbane five-piece Mid Drift, with Sarah (vocals), Rowan (drum, backing vocals), Daniel (guitar), George (guitar) and John (bass). The band has been on the up and up lately with their name featuring on festival line-ups like Spaced Out and Rolling Sets (which I’m now even more excited for!). The band had a punchy kick-off to their set, introducing the crowd to their psychedelic-inspired indie pop. They incorporate a sunny, 70s feel that’s going to be perfect for our upcoming Summer as we lay by the lake or take a dip at the beach. I was especially impressed by Sarah’s powerhouse vocals and some gorgeous flourishes from all of the guys on the guitars, drums and bass, which made their music so dynamic! A few of the songs on the set gave me a great Paramore vibe, circa their self-titled album so if you’re a fan of that band you’ll probably like Mid Drift too! Definitely try to catch one of their festival sets before the end of the year because you’re not going to want to miss them live!

Fave song: Open Hand

THE VANNS

The band made an explosive start to their Brisbane show with Accomplice, the first track from their latest album. The introduction building up under the flickering stage lights created a lot of momentum and hooked the crowd on every note of each song from that point. With Andrew Banovich on drums up the back, Jimmy Vann (vocals, guitar), Cameron Little (guitar, keyboard) and Tom Switlek (bass) took the front of the stage to rally the audience! While they’re playing, the members are incredibly cool and confident as they project their powerhouse rock n’ roll across the theatre. Between songs, when they have a moment to catch their breaths and chat up the crowd, you get a sense for the sweetness and humility the guys have. It’s very endearing and creates a connection to the music and personality of The Vanns.

I love the country twang in their guitar and Jimmy’s vocals that shines through on many of the tracks, like Thinkin Bout The Nights and Golden Eye. The band has a penchant for perfectly framing their lyrics with moving instrumentation, carried through with drum and bass and complemented in sentimental moments with keyboard. The Vanns know how to weave their instruments together, giving the audience a chance to follow the flow of the song across each unique sound on a musical journey. Red Light and recent release Feather, which is hauntingly beautiful, exemplify this really well. I love Feather especially, showing how the band uses rising tension to build to what should be an explosive chorus before stripping it all back away and allowing us to get a great contrast that makes the chorus hit so much harder. That sense of balance is addicting as a listener.

Chelsea had the crowd united with its soulful melody and the band kept pulling on that thread with Gas Craic, which transports the audience beautifully into the imagined world of their music. Their set similarly shows that mindfulness to offsetting big moments with quiet, allowing each to have their full emotional impact. Immediately after these two songs, we amped it back up with mind-blowing performance of Keep My Cool. I have to emphasise how truly phenomenal this was – I was dancing the whole night, thoroughly enjoying myself when we wrapped up the verses of Keep My Cool and I thought we were bringing the song to an end. Instead, we were given the absolute treat of an extended instrumental section which saw Jimmy run across the crowd and Cameron take centre stage while Andrew and Tom did not let up at all. It was absolutely electric and is one of those concert experiences I’ll never forget and always want to relive, definitely a highlight of my year of live music!

And at this point we were only halfway through what has become The Vanns’ longest set! We got Feels Good Now and its iconic guitar riffs next and incredibly powerful performance of Settle Me Down, which has now become one of my favourite songs from the band after tonight. This was followed by one of my favourite Like A Versions, with Bon Iver’s Hey, Ma. This was the ultimate sing-along moment for the crowd, without overshadowing the rest of the set of The Vanns’ original work.

Now entering the denouement of the evening, we had our last song from All That’s In My Head with it’s (mostly) title track. This was followed by the very pretty Ever. Our last two songs included fan favourite, Fake Friends, which again had the whole crowd hooked on every word. The week before the show I’d been catching up on the old and new songs and was once again struck by Last of Your Kind, with its retro-futuristic intro and poetic sense of hope. I imagined how great it would be to see it live and feel the emotion of its build from the crowd. So I was very happy that it took the place of our closing song for the show, creating an optimistic and freeing atmosphere for everyone to let loose for a few more minutes. Even the longest set ever wasn’t long enough for the fans, and we were chanting for more until security kicked us out!

Fave song: Keep My Cool

SOUNDS GOOD?

If you can’t get enough of The Vanns and feel like the wait between now and their next album or show is too long for you, you might be able to get your fix on one of these bands as well:

Gang of Youths – If you like explosive energy and emotional lyrics, there’s no doubt you’ll love Gang of Youths as well. They share with The Vanns an immense capacity for hosting a night you’ll never forget at their concerts!

Ocean Alley – Ocean Alley trades in the country twang for surf rock reggae, but have a similar sense of cohesion and unity in their band that make them incredibly dynamic on stage.

Middle Kids – The band’s on-stage energy is electric and they craft some memorable and beautiful live music moments at their shows. If you want to let free and dance to a band with a similar vibrancy but a lighter indie sound, Middle Kids is one of my favourite bands for a reason!

MERCH

Originally, I purchased a VIP ticket. Unfortunately, this event was cancelled but I was gifted a signed poster to make up for it! I also purchased a copy of the new album so I can relive the epic memories of tonight!

Thanks to Sarah for her copy of the Mid Drift set list!