Phil Coyne & The Wayward Aces — White Knuckle Time Album Launch

Saturday 26 September 2026
Shotkickers, Thornbury
Doors open 8pm

Melbourne’s Phil Coyne & The Wayward Aces launch their new album, White Knuckle Time, with a full-throttle night of blues at Shotkickers.

It'll be a blues extravaganza kicking off with TK Reeve and Benny Gerrard's hypnotic hill country rhythms, swinging next to the Hammond soul and deep instrumental grooves of the Liam Kealy Trio, before the Wayward Aces bring the new record to life in full four-piece flight.

Recorded with Paulie Bignell at Hailstone Studio, White Knuckle Time captures the band’s move from three-piece punch to four-piece firepower. It is high-voltage, harp-driven Australian blues: original songs, hard-swinging rhythms, razor-edged guitar and a rhythm section built to get rooms moving.

Phil Coyne & The Wayward Aces feature Phil Coyne on vocals and harmonica, Morgan Klose on guitar, Dale Lindrea on bass and Will Harris on drums.

It is the band’s biggest hometown show of the year and the first chance to hear the new record brought fully to life onstage. The live half of the White Knuckle Time double album will also be available for the first time on the night.

TK Reeve and Benny Gerrard draw on the down-home blues of R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Robert Belfour. Expect hypnotic grooves, 2/4 bangers, mellow slow-burners, wonky shuffles, standards and original songs. TK Reeve’s debut album, I Wanna Feel Good, was nominated for Best Blues Album at the 2019 Music Victoria Awards.

The Liam Kealy Trio pays homage to the organ and guitar greats of the Blue Note era, including Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Groove Holmes, Jack McDuff, Kenny Burrell, Grant Green and Wes Montgomery. Featuring Liam Kealy on Hammond B3, Keats Beats on guitar and vocals, and Joel Williams on drums and vocals, the trio moves through blues, soul, 1960s and ’70s instrumental grooves, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Brian Auger and funky contemporary jams.

Set times

8pm — Doors open
8:30pm — TK Reeve and Benny Gerrard
9:30pm — Liam Kealy Trio
10:30pm — Phil Coyne & The Wayward Aces

Three acts. One room. A new record sent properly out into the world.