mclusky may have gone but their spirit, spit and smarm lives on in two new groups – Shooting at Unarmed Men and Future of the Left. Melbourne’s lucky enough to be home to Jon Chapple’s relocated SAUM, but now we get a chance to witness the other former mclusky lads – Andy Falkous and Jack Egglestone alongside former Jarcrew member Kelson Mathias.
On the second night of their two-date stint at the Northcote Social, FOTL were supported by the similarly aggressive and direct Melbourne lads The Nation Blue. Though they share a similar sound and set-up, the Nation are a more fearsome propitiation; their lead singer’s blood-chilling lyrics and brutal work on his battle scared and heavily gaffer taped guitar. Hurling that axe against the ceiling and his back, Tom Lyngcoln was a compelling lead, forcing the audience to pay attention. When he bluntly claims to have caused your heart attack during the final song of their set you have to believe him.
With just one album to their name the Future of the Left setlist was obviously a little limited, but even so they refused to play ‘Real Men Hunt in Packs’ claiming that it sounds rubbish live and offering the rehearsal tapes to anyone who doesn’t believe them. The eager fans in front crashed into each other through ‘Small Bones Small Bodies’ and ‘Manchasm’, though the band are bemused at the size of the reaction to the ‘Colin is a pretty pussy’ breakdown. Sporting an elegant op-shopped VB branded wife beater, Kelson Mathias complained that there was less dancing on his side of the stage, though it was just an excuse to engage in more of the comic act banter between the two guitarists.
For most other bands it would simply be a way of padding out a gig drawing from a single album but FOTL are the most quotable of live acts offering far more than the standard ‘thanks, you’re a best crowd’. FOTL knew that no one was going that line and so they upped the ante after realising that thanking a few punters for making the trip from Brisbane to attend the show was odd as they could have gone to closer shows in Sydney. Mathias chimed in to ask: ‘You know what Sydney rhymes with? Cunts’; earning himself a huge cheer. Note to touring acts: if you’re gonna play the intercity rivalry card, do it with grunt and balls.
Not all of their comments received such a reaction and there were heckling calls to ‘play a song’ during one longer interlude, shocking Mathias who was apparently thinking of ‘knitting a vest or shaving a dog’. Even though they claimed the audience didn’t deserve it due to the weak heckling, the band pulled out the always thrilling mclusky favourite ‘Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues’ during their encore. Preventing any further heckling calls for more, Falkous dismantled the drum kit while Egglestone continued to bash away, eventually left with nothing to play the speaker stacks. One hell of a fine show and hopefully they’ll follow the example set by Chapple’s example and move down here. It won’t happen, but we can wish can’t we?
