The Casanovas, Asteroid B612,Hell City Glamours @ Spectrum5/11/04

Thu 11th Nov, 2004 in Gig Reviews

A great night of healthy, heavy guitar based rock. It was solid from start to finish but when the night starts with Sydney’s resident (and favourite) support act the Hell City Glamours, you know that you’re in for a great night topped off by Asteroid B612 and The Casanovas from Melbourne.

The Hell City Glamours are such a party band and they played to an impressively sized crowd considering it was 8:30pm on a Friday night. The magic was there; the rock attitude and the energetic performance that makes a Glamours show great. Probably the quietest crowd I have seen at one of their shows, they managed to pump up the still sober-ish crowd with favourites Come On Honey N’ Ride, The Skeleton and White Trash Hot Love.

Asteroid B612 are a polished, seasoned rock act. Maybe lacking the palatable love of the dance that the Hell City Glamours have, they still rocked the crowd with the strength of their individual components and really well written songs. The best thing about this band was the satisfying guitar-squeal solos – when was the last time you heard a really strong squeal? Straight Back To You and Gasoline were the best songs of their set. Gasoline was a sexy, bassy rockin’ tune performed with conviction, I really enjoyed it. Another highlight was For Your Love, a cover of the Yardbirds/ Fleetwood Mac hit although it was edgier and more angst-filled than the originals.

The Casanovas struck a chord with this die-hard Aerosmith fan. They screamed and rocked their way from the start of their set until the very last note. Although there was less dancing than with the previous bands, the band was greeted with screams of appreciation at every turn. The vocal duties are shared between Tommy, the lead singer/guitarist and Damo, the bass guitarist and were both strong and meaty. Shake It was a moment of pure rock delight, Heartbeat was a fever pitch, full crowd participation number done well. The vocal aerobics on the “babies” during Heartbeat was very impressive and provided a little bit of comic relief when the mic was extended to the crowd to mimic a very intricate “baby” and the room was silent.

The cover of ZZ Top I Thank You sizzled and is up there with the version from Australia’s own Powdermonkeys and Running So Late rocked. 10 Outta 10 was the crowd pleaser of the night and the crowd went wild for it when the first bars were played. Unfortunately, one of the guitarists got carried away, raised his guitar in a salute to the Gods of rock, knocked a mirror ball off the roof and onto the head of a lassie who was shaking it for all it was worth up the front. They handled the awkward moment well, kept the rhythm going while they made sure she was OK. She was a trooper though because it must have hurt like hell yet the show went on and she continued to shake it.

Their new single One More Time was very reminiscent of Van Halen’s Hot For Teacher but is a rock song with all the elements required, a great build up to an all out instrumental frenzy complete with wild hair flinging abandon.

On the subject of hair though, Tommy the guitarist has a porn star moustache. Now I have a bit of a theory about guitar players… When a guitarist is really wailing on their guitar, I believe that they are probably pulling the same face they would if they were in the, errr… let’s say the grips of passion. Now add to that the porn moustache and you have a sneak preview, which may prove for some, more than you bargained for in your rock show.

The encore consisted of four more songs. The first was an AC/DC inspired tune called Living In The City, it was very Highway To Hell but it worked. The rest of the encore was well received by the crowd but I was more concerned with the guy who was bouncing in front of me because I was sure I was a whisper away from a misplaced head-butt, so my attention had wandered substantially.

Overall, the highlight for me was the Hell City Glamours, they seem to deliver something which goes above the music and that is heart. Asteroid B612 were solid and polished but lacked a bit of passion in their delivery – you felt like you were watching show number 1,073 and The Casanovas won over the crowd with pure adrenaline rock. Check them out next time these Melbourne lads are in town. Woo Rock Yeah!