I know baby, just how you feel…The Galvatrons ain’t the worst that you’ve seen; can’t you see what I mean? Go ahead and see them. You might as well. Jump.
The thing about 80’s hair-pop-metal that called forth scorn from serious musicians was that it took itself a tad too seriously. The Galvatrons do not take themselves seriously. The Railway Hotel had kindly provided armchairs in front of the stage to keep us warm and snug on a cold Friday night; a fact which did not lend itself so well to an all singing all dancing audience; but while no one was dancing, every person in the bar was grinning inanely, dancing vicariously through the antics of the band named after an 80s cartoon.
Front-man and Guitarist, Johnny ‘Galvatron’ is a born performer, with all the moves of an air-rockstar with hairbrush and cricket bat, only he can actually sing and play guitar. Catching his breath in between songs, he discussed favourite scenes from This is Spinal Tap with someone in the audience, and the merits of encouraging young children to smoke. Drummer, Manny ‘Maverick’ was just another dude, until he sat behind his kit, and then he was much more than meets the eye. Hitting the skins with all he had, it wasn’t long before he was shirtless and sweating, skilfully keeping time, driving the music and at times pushing the band’s sound towards drum and bass. Pete ‘Gamma’ on keys, built the robot starship on rock and roll, and provided keyboard hooks for Galvatron and bassist Pete ‘Condor’ to jump to.
After a disappointing gig in Bunbury where the locals completely missed the point, (They asked them to play some Cold Chisel.) Gamma amused himself and fellow robots on the road trip back up to Perth by jumping out of the tour bus at lights and charging, road-rage style ‘like a huge scary black man (or like Kele from Bloc Party)’ at other frightened drivers.
Dedicating one song to The Boss, they admitted to ripping off an entire drum solo, clearly the modus operandi for the band, but where this would normally offend, The Galvatrons shameless homage to the worst, best-known music of the 80s only endears them to us more. They played a heap of songs off their EP, including the single When We Were Kids, but it really doesn’t matter what they were called, because they left a tangle of Van Halen and Starship warring on the internal jukebox, and an inexplicable and indelible grin. They never did cover Jump -but they might as well have.
See this band live. Especially if you hate 80s synth-rock. They will melt your cynical music-nazi heart.
