Opening three-piece Damn Terran’s no-frills, slash-and-dash rock was bound to seem a little out of place by the end of the night, but I don’t think any opening act in the history of opening acts has ever given a toss about this possibility. Plus they still brought their own brand of cocksure bombast to proceedings, so a common theme was kept throughout.
I wish I’d seen Howl At The Moon a long time before this show, like I should have, because they are amazing. Mental note: pay more attention to recommendations awesome talented people give me about other awesome talented people. Singer Ladie D’s voice is just a powerful, brilliant thing, and sits right at home over an adroit rhythm section and some flawless lead guitar. Capable of sounding cheerful, grim, bright and dusty all at once. Sexy, sexy Rickenbacker bass guitar, by the way.
And what can I say about Jack On Fire’s set? New EP Sermons From The Eastern Seaboard promised me a band who knew what was what on stage; this is certainly the case, and along with some bloody talented guests on vocal and string duties, this set won’t escape anyone’s memory for a while. Hell, some of the band’s family members flew over from Perth to catch this launch, so you’ve already got to be halfway to legendary to warrant that kind of commitment.
There were smiles all around the crowd as EP opener Less Than Ordinary was belted out, resplendent with violin swells, hammering percussion, flawlessly mixed vocal echo and mandolin jangling throughout. Ben Blakeney’s flippant stage motions belied a measured vocal delivery and a humble yet overwhelmed demeanour in general. George Hyde’s so jagged-it’s-smooth lead guitar was absolutely ripping, and the motion and energy he threw behind songs like Terra Nullius was inspiring in its own right.
The scene of the night, though, had to be the band belting out Forgive Me, Jesus with a stage full of additional personnel bashing tambourines and wailing ‘Am I coming to see you Lord’ with enough grins and gusto to bring the tin man to his knees. Throw in an actual encore, I almost thought they didn’t exist anymore – sorry I don’t know what this song was but it was just as amazing – and this show will go down as the special one I remember seeing before Jack On Fire were the darlings of a town already cottoning on.
LOVED: Has to be Forgive Me Jesus, but a special mention to Howl At The Moon’s Ladie D for a flawless set of her own.
HATED: Not a lot! Even the mix was pretty spot on, which was impressive for the amount of instrumentation.
DRANK: Scotch and dry, baby. One of those nights.
