Never trust a man wearing white pants. It’s been a belief of mine for years and this weekend when Me First And The Gimme Gimme’s strolled onto the stage in matching Hawaiian shirts and white suits I knew I was onto something. Don’t get me wrong, if any member of the punk rock supergroup cover band invited me to party with them, I wouldn’t decline, but as Joey Cape put it, “We might have a problem”. He was referring to the need for an ‘alcohol technician’ side of stage. I’m no stranger to a pot of liquid gold myself but you see where I’m coming from. White pants = approach with extreme caution.
I went to both shows this weekend (Saturday and Sunday), so I’m going to do a little comparison rather than your standard, supports, audience, set list type format.
Saturday night: They opened with a cover (sorry, it had to be done), Gloria Gaynor’s, I Will Survive. The rest of their set was plucked from their albums with a few songs from the EPs, Go Down Under and Sing In Japanese. The show was sold-out, the tempo was charging and the mosh wasn’t holding back. I was juggling pots with a semi obstructed pole position but I could still see a number of legs falling through the air. Saturday was definitely the night for music and energy, but Sunday, that was the night for entertainment.
Sunday: In the first five minutes of this show, Spike Slawson mentioned performance enhancing drugs half a dozen times. Not in context, he just shouted it into the mic, tipping off the audience that the ‘constant professionals’ onstage might be feeling a little bit seedy. If you paid attention to Eric Melvin’s face (who was filling in for Fat Mike) you’d notice he had the expression of someone who was trying to figure out if the room was full of unicorns and wizards or 30 year olds trying to relive the ’90s. For clarification, it was the later. He also extended a few intros as he attempted to remember how to play the songs.
Now don’t get the wrong idea, in terms of punk rock shows, this is exactly what you want to see. The crowd loved it, the band members were ripping on each other so much that they had to cut down the set list by a number of songs. They were also playing at album speed, which is almost unheard of by these artists. Spike was telling the audience that Joey told him he hates Melbourne, Joey was calling Spike a liar and running onstage late after encore. Melvin was grinning. And, you guessed it, they ended with a cover (I’m not sorry) End Of The Road by Boys II Men.
All in all, it was two awesome nights of karaoke and beer.
BY LIZZIE DYNON
Loved: The entire weekend.
Hated: Monday morning.
Drank: All of the beer.
