For those about to rock - and serve the public - we salute you! 

Dept of Rock returns to Smith's Alternative for another fun and thrilling Battle of the Bands competition for Canberra's public servants. 

Who will take home the gold and get inducted into the Dept of Rock Hall of Fame? More importantly who will have the best time rocking out? 

Come cheer on our awesome public servant rockstars and help us raise some money for small local charities.

Heat 4 - Bands

Triple O Maniacs – By day, we’re mild-mannered government workers. But somewhere between setting our “Out of Office” and hitting the first chord, things got a little out of hand…Meet Triple O Maniacs, a band born specifically for the Department of Rock. We realised we have a shared desire to do something more exciting with our hands than typing emails and answering phones. We love serving our community, but we love serving up live music even more! We’re a diverse crew from different cultural and career backgrounds; we have empaths from JACS, a L&D lady from Defence, our rhythm section features an IT geek who refuses to play his first note until we’ve turned the amp off and back on again; and a high school kid who needs to be chauffeured by her parents (lucky for her, mum is on the drums!). Collectively our musical tastes span a wide range from classical to country, and everything in between. But when it came time to find a common language, we landed on alternative rock: loud enough to snap us out of autopilot, weird enough to keep things interesting, and just familiar enough to bring us all together. 
May we all work hard, play hard and, most importantly have a blast!

Same, Same But Different Canberra -  is a high energy Punk New Age band bringing familiar punk angst in a completely.

Sunburnt Anthems – Six musicians. Six opinions. One band. What could possibly go wrong? Sunburnt Anthems is a six-piece band held together by music, friendship, questionable decisions and an alarming belief that we actually know what we're doing. We're six musicians who get together because we love playing music and having fun.  Our philosophy is simple: play good music, have a laugh, and don't take ourselves too seriously. We're a musical mixed bag - country rock, pop, classics, crowd favourites and the occasional song that seemed like a brilliant idea when we chose it. Between us, there's enough musical experience to know better... and enough enthusiasm to ignore it. There may be the occasional wrong note. There may be a forgotten lyric. There may even be a heated discussion about who is supposed to start the song. But that's all part of the entertainment. We're not chasing fame. We're not auditioning for The Voice. And frankly, we're not sure the world is ready for us. We simply love getting together, making some noise and watching people sing, dance and have a bloody good time.  So if you're looking for polished perfection, you're probably in the wrong place. 

Dislodged – Six strangers joined together long ago in the forge of UniLodge at ANU, Dislodged started as an entrant into the Big Night Out competition at ANU in 2022. Since then, Dislodged have played around Canberra venues, with a collection of catchy originals and crowd-favourite covers. Genres they enjoy playing span the width of pop to rock to indie, and dabbling in everything in between. Their sound has been described by many as “an oscillation in pressure, stress, particle displacement, or velocity propagated in a medium with internal forces, or the auditory sensation evoked by that oscillation”. To experience these oscillations, dislodge yourself from the couch and come along to Dept of Rock on 27 October at Smith's Alternative.

Sinister Star – Sinister Star play heavy metal rooted in the sound of the ’70s and early ’80s. Big riffs, raw energy and a dark edge — keeping the spirit of classic metal alive.