Monstors of Rock

Yes, they really did call a concert that.

On Saturday night we saw Rose Tattoo, The Screaming Jets and The Angels. Three of the classic pub rock bands of Australia's music history, some of them looking more historical than others.

We missed the start of Rose Tattoo (the cocktails at Zanzibar were that good), but Angry hasn't changed a bit. Well, ok, the gut has probably expanded, and the rest of the Tatts could probably benefit from Angry's hair cut, but they may as well have been performing in 1978. They were great. Angry gave some customary lectures about ANZAC day and it was all good. They seemed completely comfortable with just playing all the crowd fav's. A great mix of nostalgia and awesome rock performance.

I've always loved seeing The Jets, Dave Gleeson is a dick, but he puts on a great show. I was a little concerned about how tragic he might have become, but it turns out he has become a parody of himself, and that works just fine. I was a little disappointed to not see FRC or Shiver (the latter being one of the great Aussie covers in my mind), but they started with Blue Sashes and finished with Better, so I can't complain. Being 20 years younger than their fellow bands, they are still recording, and played a new one (Mary Jane) which I didn't hate. Seems they might have been listening to a bit of Paul Kelly recently. My only real regret was that we were sitting in the old people seats, and I'd have loved to have been down on the floor for these guys. So much so that if they do a pub tour on the new album, I'll drag a bunch of people along to see them again.

And then we come to The Angels. I've seen them more times than I can count - the most notable being at the Entertainment Centre supporting Guns n Roses in 1989 and they were so amazing I thought they'd blow the Gunners off the stage. In fact, Axl had not yet destroyed his body and voice with squillions of dollars' worth of drugs, and Guns n Roses were awesome, but that Angels show still stands out in my mind. I know Doc is a lot worse for wear - I watched a doco on SBS last year following one of their more recent tours. I also know most of the band hates each other. Unfortunately both of these facts were apparent on stage. They played a fantastic set of classics and it all sounded great, but it wasn't great to watch. I loved it, nonetheless - every word came back to me without hesitation, along with a goodly proportion of my teenage years. Graham Marshall, if you are still alive, I was back in your parents' lounge room on Saturday night. :)

So I'm not sure I'd recommend The Angels to someone lacking in my nostalgic connection, but the other two are reliably fun for anyone with a love of rock. Besides, a gig with everyone from 18 year olds sporting a whole jar of hair product (the boys at least) to 60 year olds with grey hair and goatees is well worth it. There were some other women. I think. :)