{"id":2632,"date":"2026-01-20T06:18:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/?p=2632"},"modified":"2026-01-20T06:18:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T06:18:39","slug":"surreal-science-reassembles-the-scientists-and-the-surrealists-live-backseat-mafia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/?p=2632","title":{"rendered":"Surreal Science reassembles The Scientists and The Surrealists live \u2013 Backseat Mafia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><strong>Surreal Science<\/strong>\u00a0arrives as a rare chance to step inside two of Australia\u2019s most disruptive rock lineages without flattening them into nostalgia. Rather than a greatest-hits retelling, this is a live construction built from fragments, overlaps, and collisions, drawing on the shared histories of\u00a0<strong>The Scientists<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>The Surrealists<\/strong>\u00a0to create something deliberately unstable and resolutely present.<\/p>\n<p>Across a rotating cast of three drummers, three guitarists, two bass players and two vocalists, the performance pulls from a pool of around 160 songs, reassembled differently each night. The set unfolds thematically rather than chronologically, allowing moods and ideas to bleed into one another. Line-ups shift in real time as different incarnations of the two bands surface and dissolve, moving from abrasion to glide to burn without pause.<\/p>\n<p>The Scientists\u2019 original proposition still sits at the core: a refusal of conventional melody in favour of minimalism, brutality and abstraction, without ever abandoning rock and roll\u2019s physical force. Their work travelled far beyond Australia, quietly feeding into later movements from Seattle grunge to noise-rock and psych-adjacent scenes. That legacy isn\u2019t presented as influence tracing, but as atmosphere, a pressure that still hums beneath the music.<\/p>\n<p>The Surrealists picked up that pressure and redirected it. Where The Scientists stripped things back to the bone, The Surrealists treated everything as usable material. Melody, technique, abstraction and noise coexist rather than cancel each other out. Each performance becomes a kind of salvage operation, not in the sense of rescuing the past, but in reshaping it with intent and curiosity.<\/p>\n<p>Taking place in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in April,\u00a0<strong>Surreal Science<\/strong>\u00a0runs as a two-hour performance with an intermission. On stage will be guitarist Tony Thewlis; bassists Boris Sujdovic and Stu Thomas; drummers Clare Moore, Greg Bainbridge and Phil Collings; production engineer Hepburn; and vocalist and guitarist\u00a0<strong>Kim Salmon<\/strong>. Visual material spanning past, present and future iterations of both bands is projected around the performance space, not as illustration but as another shifting layer.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t framed as a tribute, nor a tidy historical account. It\u2019s an acknowledgement that these bands are part of an ongoing story, one that resists linear explanation.\u00a0<strong>Surreal Science<\/strong>\u00a0doesn\u2019t narrate so much as immerse, offering a sideways view of how sound, memory and risk continue to shape each other.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\">\n<summary><strong>SURREAL SCIENCE LIVE<\/strong><br \/>\u00a0<br \/>\u00a0<br \/><strong>FRIDAY APRIL 10 \u2013 CORNER HOTEL, Melbourne<\/strong><br \/><strong>TICKETS<\/strong><br \/>\u00a0<br \/><strong>SATURDAY APRIL 11 \u2013 OXFORD ART FACTORY, Sydney<\/strong><br \/><strong>TICKETS<\/strong><br \/>\u00a0<br \/><strong>SATURDAY APRIL 18 \u2013 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL, Perth<\/strong><br \/><strong>TICKETS<\/strong><br \/>\u00a0<\/summary>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\">\n<table class=\"has-fixed-layout\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Don\u2019t miss these Surreal Science shows:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>FRIDAY APRIL 10 \u2013 CORNER HOTEL, Melbourne<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>TICKETS<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>SATURDAY APRIL 11 \u2013 OXFORD ART FACTORY, Sydney<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>TICKETS<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>SATURDAY APRIL 18 \u2013 ROSEMOUNT HOTEL, Perth<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>TICKETS<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<\/details>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"900\" data-attachment-id=\"280061\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.backseatmafia.com\/news-surreal-science-reassembles-the-scientists-and-the-surrealists-live\/unnamed-52-7\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?fit=900%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"900,900\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"unnamed-52\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?fit=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?fit=900%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?resize=900%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-280061\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?resize=70%2C70&amp;ssl=1 70w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?resize=335%2C335&amp;ssl=1 335w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backseatmafia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/unnamed-52.jpg?resize=360%2C360&amp;ssl=1 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\"\/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded\" id=\"like-post-wrapper-81918055-280059-696f1793d1122\" data-src=\"https:\/\/widgets.wp.com\/likes\/?ver=15.4#blog_id=81918055&amp;post_id=280059&amp;origin=www.backseatmafia.com&amp;obj_id=81918055-280059-696f1793d1122\" data-name=\"like-post-frame-81918055-280059-696f1793d1122\" data-title=\"Like or Reblog\">\n<h3 class=\"sd-title\">Like this:<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"button\"><span>Like<\/span><\/span> <span class=\"loading\">Loading&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"sd-text-color\"\/><\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_GB\/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;appId=249643311490&version=v2.3\"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>#Surreal #Science #reassembles #Scientists #Surrealists #live #Backseat #Mafia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surreal Science\u00a0arrives as a rare chance to step inside two of Australia\u2019s most disruptive rock lineages without flattening them into nostalgia. Rather than a greatest-hits retelling, this is a live&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275],"tags":[380,660,381,710,709,711,708,712],"class_list":["post-2632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-backseat","tag-live","tag-mafia","tag-reassembles","tag-science","tag-scientists","tag-surreal","tag-surrealists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sincerelyjule.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}