When the Pixies came down to perform their classic album Doolittle from start to finish a few years ago, as good as the band were in a technical sense, it was all too evident they’d re-learned the record note-for-note. They generated all the same guitar sounds and even precisely mimicked the record’s imperfections. The result was a band sounding exactly like their earlier selves, but lacking the unpredictable edge that made the original material so legendary and enduring. Any band regrouping far removed from the circumstances and motivation that contributed to their unique appeal obviously faces a tough task.
However, tonight at Howler, The Scientists refused to suffer from such a malady. This is the 35th anniversary of the band’s original Perth pub-scene lineup. Curiously enough, this foursome (vocalist/guitarist Kim Salmon, drummer James Baker, guitarist Roddy Radalj and bassist Boris Sujdovic) actually weren’t all still in the band by the time the setlist material was recorded. The songs performed ended up on the band’s 1980 self-titled Pink Album (and the preceding singles), but the mature-age dudes played everything as if bloody excited about what they’d just thrown together in the garage.
There was no sterile reprisal of the glory days of yore. Even a decidedly filthy Sympathy For The Devil cover came dripping with youthful spontaneity. The band launched into everything with a “well-here-goes!” attitude. Admittedly, at times this made for head-tilting moments of questionable looseness. But that’s simply an element of why this show was so exhilarating. When it worked, The Scientists, onstage here at Howler, sounded like Australia’s freshest and most important punk band. That claim shouldn’t be read as divisive or definitive, it’s more a reflection on the shaking energy flung forth from the stage when they kicked into the hook-heavy Frantic Romantic, the gnarled Beatles-meets-The Cramps She Said She Loves Me and the rock’n’roll throwback Shadows of the Night.
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
Loved: Support acts Drunk Mums and Bitter Sweet Kicks.
Hated: Not joining a Perth punk band in the ‘70s.
Drank: Enough to get pissed on another planet.
