A weekend with only one AFL game on offer upsets the fine-tuned balance of a winter weekend in Melbourne. Two made-up teams playing a cautious corporate showcase game could only be a passionless exercise that offered little in the way to genuine entertainment. Thankfully there was a more passionate contest between Victoria and the interstate invaders over at the Northcote Social where local lad Nathan Hollywood matched up against the boys from the WAs Kill Devil Hills .

Despite brandishing a name that suggests a beer-barn covers singer Nathan Hollywood quickly proved that he’s nothing of the sort. With his seven, often neglected, band members sharing the stage Hollywood delivered a brooding set of country shaded ballads that showcased his rich timbre and dark narratives. His band were called on for some of the more rousing climaxes, though his work was most gripping when he shared vocal duties to duet with Corinna Scanlon. Together they plough the same fields as the Isobel Campbell And Mark Lanegan have on their two albums of haunting duets, though Holywood’s voice is molasses in comparison to Lanegan’s gravel growl. Hollywood’s lyrics search out the barren county nights with an ominous darkness that recalls Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads . When called upon the crowded band backed these brooding visions with a ghostly menace including the bittersweet wail of bowed saw which was used to fine effect on the set’s highlight, ‘Six Feet Deep in Love’.

If this gig was a film Hollywood would be cast as the mysterious stranger in black, while the Kill Devils would appear as a ragged version of the Wild Bunch. Though recent fatherhood seen some band members shave their tangled beards (‘the child is the natural enemy of the beard’) they still appear to have arrived at the show after riding through the desert haze and dust from WA to Melbourne. Like The Band before them they share a grit and passion for fusing blues, country, rock and the comparison is further enriched by their similarly everyman approach as they pass the lead vocal around the campfire.

Here on the east coast to push their new 7” single ‘Hungry and Down’ the Kill Devils set blended new tracks from an upcoming record with the tunes that guarantee the sold out signs outside their gigs. ‘Hungry and Down’ is a bawdy drinking sing-along belted out by Stephen Gibson as he stands and beats his drum kit. It’s a stirring highlight of amongst their new material and another chance to hear the tattered and belted vocals of Gibson, who also leads the sing-along of their finest tune, the hardman’s heartbreaker ‘Drinking Too Much’. It followed quickly on the heals of the thrilling ‘Gunslinger’ with the whole band kicking out the tumble weeds to sing the chorus. The show closed with the gang gathering around a single mic for the back porch blues of ‘Down To the River’ – the B-side to ‘Hungry and Down’ – which stirs most punters in the full venue to lend their voices to the chorus lament.

The Kill Devils mine a rock sound that’s so distinctly Australian in its larrikin, hard-drinking, hard-living spirit that given the chance they’d surely have been the most popular band on the phonograph at the Ned Kelly’s Glenrowan Inn showdown. Or at least running a very close second to Kelly’s other favourites – The Drones. With the wailing violin of Alex Archer up front The Kill Devils again proved they’re one of the finest acts this country has to offer – a Dream Team to match any comers.