After months of inactivity following the release of their 12th LP Peel Me Like A Egg, Ahn is determined to return to the stage. “I’ve had a really long break from music. Our guitarist Blackie [Peter Black] went on a solo tour of Europe so it was a good chance to just stop playing music for a while,” he says. “I just don’t stop playing music, so it was good to have a break and do the family stuff. I’ve been doing a lot of artwork as well. We’re going to play soon so I’m excited for that. I always miss playing. If I’m away from playing for more than three weeks I start to miss it.”
Anticipating a double header at The Bendigo Hotel, including a rare all ages show on Melbourne Cup Day, Ahn admits the band have placed little focus on all ages crowds in the past. “If it was up to me I wouldn’t do any all ages shows at all, but someone asked us so we’re going to do it. It’s not really something that the Hard-Ons think about much. We did tons of all ages shows back in the ‘80s, but for some reason we just don’t really do them anymore. I can’t really think of anyone under the age of 18 who would want to see a 50-year-old man on stage with his shirt off anyway.”
The Hard-Ons’ commitment to live performance has made them one of Australia’s most formidable and unflaggingly relevant punk bands. Ahn says the approach is simple. “We just don’t really have time to focus on anything else. We just want to be a really good band and the only way to do it for the Hard-Ons is just to think about making the set as good as possible. That’s just the way we work. We try not to think too much about where the gig is or the other bands playing – we just focus on our set and our performance. The band is purely focused on the two sets that we will be doing in Melbourne and making sure that the songs we are playing are as solid and tight as possible.
“We also have the problem of living in Sydney instead of Melbourne. In Sydney there are less places to play, venues are having difficulties and people in bands in Melbourne also seem a lot more helpful and committed to the scene and supporting each other, especially with great venues like The Tote and The Bendigo. I’d love to see a lot more of that in Sydney, but then again I’m 50 so I’m not going to be going out anyway.”
With 12 albums under their belt, covering everything from bubblegum pop to grindcore, the band’s never settled into a predictable sound. “I think there’s a lot of bands like AC/DC or Ramones that have gotten to the point where they must have come to a crossroad where they worked out a formula of what worked for them and stuck with it,” Ahn says. “With a band like Hard-Ons there’s just not nearly as many fans that are demanding that we play the same songs forever. When you’re not answering to too many people, you can kind of do anything.”
BY JOE HANSEN
