The ghost of 1990s grunge rock reappeared at a Hamilton high school on Wednesday.
As the band Maple Syrup rocked out before students at St Francis Xavier's College, teen spirit reverberated through school corridors and youthful minds.
The band, whose four members attend the college, had just been announced as the act to perform on stage before the Newcastle 500 Supercars race starts in November.
Supercars event manager Kurt Sakzewski confirmed that the band would perform "on a stage in front of the podium and the crowd".
Kurt said the idea was to give some local talent a bit of exposure.
"These guys came to our attention when we announced Screaming Jets as the support act for KISS," he said.
"They come from the same school that Dave Gleeson went to. They performed a couple of songs at a media event that day and everyone was impressed, including the guys from Screaming Jets."
Maple Syrup lead singer and guitarist Austin Mackay said the Supercars gig came about after the band won the school's Battle of the Bands competition.
"Once we won that, we went and recorded a single at 90 Degree Studio [in Newcastle West]. After that, they came to do the media call at our school. Then we got on board with that," he said.
We wondered whether performing live at school felt like ripping through the fabric of a spiritless, institutionalised education system.
Alas, no. Austin said his school - which has five or so bands - strongly backs music, art and culture.
"They run the comp [Battle of the Bands] every year. They put an HSC music night on and they do art and drama exhibitions and stuff like that as well," he said.
"They really like to get involved with that stuff. It's not just the expected sport and academics."
He said the school had a great community spirit that supported diverse music genres.
So there you have it. At St Francis Xavier's College, it smells more like community spirit.
But as Herald photographer Max Mason-Hubers shows in this cracking photo, teen spirit remains alive and well.
Beach Life
Speaking of musicians, Flume has popped up at Boomerang beach, near Seal Rocks.
The electronic music artist posted on Instagram a photo of himself at the beach, which is "popular with the Newcastle beach set," according to a Topics spy.
Flume recently performed at the iconic Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. His gig attracted controversy when he was recorded mimicking a sex act on stage.
Surely it wasn't as bad as Matt Agnew and Abbie Chatfield getting all raunchy on that steamy episode of The Bachelor. The "softcore porn session" apparently led to Channel 10 receiving loads of complaints.
Ho hum.
