Images: Flynn Turley Photography
After 15 years of making music from their lounge room, an Adelaide garage-punk trio is finally stepping onto a live stage, with an incurable cancer diagnosis helping give them the push to stop waiting.
Last Milieu will make their long-awaited live debut at Punk From the Garage at 185a Semaphore Road, Exeter, on Saturday, September 12th, joining Green Circles, The Mushniks and Baulk at the Möön.
The gig is celebrating drummer and vocalist Andi Last’s 53rd birthday, just months after she was diagnosed with incurable stage IV breast cancer.
For Andi and husband Jay Last, who formed the band in their San Diego lounge room in 2011, the diagnosis has brought a new urgency to their music.
“In 2011, we started playing in our lounge room and made a music video just for fun,” shared Andi. “In 2015, I was diagnosed with early breast cancer. As I went through treatment, making another music video was like therapy for me.
After years of being told there was “no evidence of disease,” Andi said the pair continued making music as the world around them changed.
In 2020, Last Milieu began creating music videos that spoke out against the rise of fascism, but despite their growing catalogue, they still hadn’t taken their music to a live audience.
That changed when Andi received her stage IV diagnosis in December 2025.
“Eight months ago when my oncologist told me, ‘this is the cancer that almost certainly will end your life prematurely,’ our priorities shifted pretty dramatically. We have stuff to say. We can’t wait any longer.”
The diagnosis has ultimately become the catalyst for Last Milieu to take its raw garage-punk sound from the lounge room to the stage, with the band hoping to deliver a mix of protest, love and empathy to live audiences.
The trio has also released its first original track, GEN X, ahead of the debut performance.
The track brings a punch of punk energy to the band’s garage-rock sound, taking aim at systemic inequality and calling on the generation raised on MTV, The Clash and Joan Jett to use its collective experience to challenge what has long been broken.
Drawing on cultural touchstones including Mister Rogers, Jane Goodall and Carl Sagan, the song combines its criticism of oligarchs and dictators with a message of empathy, love and kindness.
Last Milieu began as a husband-and-wife duo, with Andi on vocals and drums and Jay on vocals, guitar and bass.
The pair relocated to South Australia in 2025, where the project evolved into a performance-ready trio with the addition of UK-born multi-instrumentalist Stuart Baulk, who plays bass, rhythm guitar, keys and backing vocals.
Now, after a decade and a half of making music behind closed doors, Last Milieu is ready to finally turn the amps up and take its message to the Adelaide stage.
Last Milieu live debut
What: Punk From the Garage
When: Saturday, September 12th
Where: 185a Semaphore Road, Exeter
For more information, click here.
