I arrived at The Annandale with the usual greeting of a gruff bouncer and the smell of stale beer. I really can’t express how much I love this place. It’s dirty. It’s dark. It’s rock. Whichever way you look at it The Annandale is, if anything, a venue that screams filthy rock goodness and all the fun such goodness entails.
The Hell City Glamours were playing, and while the turnout was far under what you might call strong support, the band put on a great show anyway. The singer was snaking like Axle while the guitarist, who looked like Mexican Jimmy Page (if he’d had just a few more burritos as opposed to a healthy diet of scag, slags and booze), delivered flurries of guitar tap mastery over the irresistibly insistent bass and drums.
This band was neither original nor particularly impressive, but they were fun. “Hey, what the fuck is the next song, guys my set-list is in Spanish!” the bass player exclaimed as the rest of the band laughed, asking him again and again throughout the show what the next song was, “what the fuck does el camino mean?”
Their banter was playful, their performance passionate and they all played their parts well, feeding off each other’s energy as they played. They’re not my favourite band in the world, but if you want to see a good old rock band give it a whirl, check out these guys.
I had the pleasure of meeting The Skybombers before the show as I had a cigarette outside in the freezing cold. This was a blessing as I finagled a set-list out of them, as I didn’t know any of the songs. Of course the down side of this is I can’t say things like the bass player Ravi (if you’re reading) is a goat molester, as they know what I look like. Also, worth a mention the drummer, Scottie, was wearing a wick-rad belt with like some sort of Maoist symbol on the buckle, and if communist China isn’t rock I don’t know what is.
Anyway, as they started up, a few more people began to filter into the dim and dingy Shangri-la that is the Annandale. They opened with Gam, and it definitely lived up to its name. The vibe was large, the room was small but Skybombers delivered a convincing performance. Singer *Hugh’*s voice is fantastic. It’s not amazing in any classical sense but the timbre of his vocals, and the way he can almost growl melodically, really gave the band a sticking point to branch out from. Ravi and guitarist Sam sing back up harmonies with practised skill, adding a whole third dimension to the band’s sound.
Their current single, Always Complaining, opened with a riff dirty enough to get your gran up on the dance floor, flashing back to her days swing-dancing with Howard Hughes. This song is the best example of how the backing vocal harmonies, really give this band such a whole sound. The song has a very Vines-if-Craig-wasn’t-such-a-freak vibe, and it got the crowd rocking.
They surprised me by throwing in a cover of Sorry by the Easybeats, giving the good old EBs a modern twist with grunge and fun galore. I think this was the real highlight of the show, as to me it Skybombers remind me at once of bands like The Easybeats, and The Beatles before Rubber Soul, but at the same time they have a very modern sound. This mix of dirty guitars with a ‘60s pop/rock melodic sensibility is strangely infectious.
While they played well, and put on a very enthusiastic performance regardless of the small crowd, the whole show was a bit of a technical nightmare, with two guitars being broken, forcing Sam to play the last few songs a few strings short. However, the last songs were some of the best of the night. Teenage Dream rolled out over the crowd on the power of its relentlessly thumping bassline and infectious as bird flu guitar riffs and vocal hooks, with band giving the most energetic performance of the night.
Their set finished early due to these setbacks but even so, I don’t think anyone there was unsatisfied. That’s what really struck me about the gig: there was no animosity: it was just a good old rock crowd out for a good time, good music and a few beers. If you like well executed pop/rock, that isn’t just cream-puff wankery, check out Skybombers.
