Cash Savage and the Last Drinks is an Australian band from

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, formed in 2008 by singer and guitarist Cash Savage. Currently, the lineup also includes guitarists Joe White and Dougal Shaw, fiddlist Kat Mear, percussionist Rene Mancuso, keyboardist Roshan Khozouei and bassist Nick Finch. They have released five studio albums and one live album: ''Wolf'' (2010), ''The Hypnotiser'' (2013), ''One of Us'' (2016), ''Good Citizens'' (2018), ''Live at Hamer Hall'' (2020) and ''So This is Love'' (2023).

History

2008–2014: Formation and ''Wolf'' and ''The Hypnotiser''

Singer and songwriter Cash Savage grew up in

Port Albert Port Albert is a town in Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, on the coast of Corner Inlet on the Yarram - Port Albert Road, south-east of Morwell, Victoria, Morwell, south-east of Melbourne, in the Shire of Wellington. At the , Port Alb ...

, in the

Gippsland Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of th ...

region of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, and is the eldest of five children. Born into a musical family, Savage's uncle was

Conway Savage Conway Victor Savage (27 July 1960 – 2 September 2018) was an Australian rock musician. He was a member of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, providing piano, organ & backing vocals from 1990 to 2017. Savage released solo albums entitled ''Nothing ...

, a veteran Australian rock musician and keyboardist for

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are a Rock music, rock band formed in Melbourne in 1983 by lead vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and German guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throug ...

. Savage began playing gigs around

at age 17. In 2008, Savage formed the Last Drinks as her backing band, with no fixed line-up, but instead including whoever was available to play on any given night. A self-released, self-titled EP was released in 2008. Savage credits Fitzroy venue

The Old Bar The Old Bar (2001) is a bar and live music venue on the premises of 74–76 Johnston St, between Brunswick and Nicholson streets, in Fitzroy, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The venue currently operates 7 days a week wi ...

as the band's spiritual home. In 2010, the band released ''Wolf''. The band's line-up was solidified in 2013, and they recorded ''The Hypnotiser'' at Head Gap Studios in Preston, Victoria, produced by Nick Finch (Graveyard Train) and engineered by Nao Anzai. The album was featured in year-end critic lists by

Triple R 3RRR (pronounced "Three Triple R", or simply "Triple R") is an Australian community radio station, based in Melbourne. 3RRR first commenced broadcasting in 1976 from the studios of 3ST, the student radio station of the Royal Melbourne Institu ...

, PBS 106.7FM, and Beat Magazine. "I’m in Love" was nominated for Best Song at the

Music Victoria Awards of 2013 The Music Victoria Awards of 2013 are the eighth Annual Music Victoria Awards and consist of a series of awards, culminating on 20 November 2013. Previously known as The Age EG Awards, 2013 was the first year under the title Music Victoria Awards ...

2015–present: ''One of Us'' and ''Good Citizens''

In 2015, the band was signed to independent Australian label Mistletone Records to release its third studio album, ''One of Us'' (2016). The album's lyrical content reflects a tumultuous personal period for Savage. Upon its release, ''One of Us'' received very favourable critical reviews from publications such as

the Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

, the

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...

, and Beat Magazine, and was named Album of the Week by Triple R. The album's success saw the band tour Europe in 2015 and 2016, playing shows and festivals in Czech Republic, France, Poland, Netherlands and Austria. Following their first international tour, the band received distribution for their 2nd and 3rd albums across Europe by Beast Records.

2020–present: ''Live at Hamer Hall'' and ''So This is Love ''

In 2020, in between lockdowns, Cash Savage &The Last Drinks were asked to perform at Melbourne’s iconic Hamer Hall to cameras and no audience. The show was so powerful that it was pressed as a live album by Glitterhouse Records in Germany, and Mistletone in Australia. Reflecting on the Hamer Hall performance, Cash stated; “There were mixed emotions going into this performance. Melbourne had fared well through the first lockdown, and as we were rehearsing for this, it felt like we were going to come out of it okay. By the time we performed, it was the very beginnings of the second wave. “Having the opportunity to play Hamer Hall was huge. It was an adjustment of expectations to think of it as a gig with no audience. We decided to make this something different — not a gig with no audience — its own thing. A performance in one movement. No gaps, no empty space. No back and forth with the crowd. Just us. We didn’t intend on releasing it when we recorded it. It was performed for the moment.” On the 28 April 2023, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks released their fifth studio album ''So This is Love'' through Mistletone in Australia and Glitterhouse in Germany. Rough trade said about the album - 'The theme of fragility runs through the album like a faultline. Fragile mental health, a fragile economy, the fragility of the environment and our personal relationships, all on the brink of collapse, threatening to crack under pressure; this is the fraught territory So This Is Love inhabits, and fearlessly explores. The opening three songs of the album flow into each other with increasing urgency, declaring the gravity of the situation. True to the album title, Cash Savage delves deep and with ferocious honesty into what love means to her, as a queer woman coming to terms with a marriage breakup and a mental breakdown. “All love will end, all love will change form”, Cash observes. “If you experience deep love, you don’t judge it as a failure if it doesn’t last. You can love someone after they die, you can love someone in a different way.” Romantic love, family love, the bonds of friendship, self-love and the affectionate intimacy of spending the night with someone are some of the forms that love takes, as the stories of So This Is Love unfold'.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Extended plays

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual awards ceremony held by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

. ! , - ,

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, ''So This Is Love'' , Best Blues and Roots Album , ,

Music Victoria Awards

The

Music Victoria Awards The Music Victoria Awards (previously known as The Age EG Awards and The Age Music Victoria Awards) are an annual awards night celebrating music from the Australian state of Victoria. They commenced in 2006 and are awarded in Melbourne Music W ...

(previously known as The Age EG Awards and The Age Music Victoria Awards) are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. ! , - ,

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

, "I'm in Love" , Best Song , , rowspan="4" , , - ,

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, themselves , Best Live Act , , - , rowspan="2" ,

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, themselves , Best Band , , - , "Good Citizens" , Best Song , , - , rowspan="2",

, ''So This is Love'' , Best Album , , rowspan="2", , - , themselves , Best Rock/Punk Work ,

National Live Music Awards

The

National Live Music Awards The National Live Music Awards (NLMAs) are annual Australian music awards, established by Heath Media in 2016. They were preceded by the AU Live Music Awards in the previous two years. The awards are given in categories that recognise the best ...

(NLMAs) commenced in 2016 to recognise contributions to the live music industry in Australia. ! , - ,

, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks , Live Blues and Roots Act of the Year , , , - , rowspan="2" ,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks , Live Blues and Roots Act of the Year , , rowspan="2" , , - , Kat Mear (Cash Savage and the Last Drinks) , Live Instrumentalist Act of the Year , , - , rowspan="2",

, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks , Live Indie / Rock Act of the Year , , rowspan="2", , - , Kat Mear (Cash Savage and the Last Drinks) , Live Instrumentalist Act of the Year! , , - , scope="row" rowspan="3",

, Cash Savage , Best Live Voice , , scope="row" rowspan="3", , - , Nick Finch (Cash Savage) , Best Live Bassist , , - , Cash Savage , Best Indie/Rock/Alternative Act , , -

References

External links

*
Profile at Mistletone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Savage and the Last Drinks, Cash Musical groups from Melbourne Australian country music groups Australian blues musical groups Musical groups established in 2008