It’s been a long time coming but the disputes, injuries, legal cases and general acrimony that has recently embroiled the members of The Angels has finally been put to rest. And the response: A reunion tour of one of Australia’s finest Pub Rock bands. The public wanted it badly too. All their shows so far have been sold out, and the Adelaide stretch is no exception.
The Gov is a wonderful place if packed out, and on this occasion the atmosphere was pumping. You could tell just by the collection of people and their combined anticipation that many were seeing a band they had loved in previous lifetimes and that they thought they would never see again. So what we got was a run through of those Aussie Radio classics that have become a part of our culture whether its acknowledged or not.
For a band like the Angels it seemed an interesting decision to justify their getting back together tour as a celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Face to Face. Given that their succession of early albums each have numerous Australian Rock Classics and all offer up a more than decent serving of their unique brand of pub rock, it seemed strange. All the same, it seemed to boil down to any excuse to get these guys together again (The five original members, plus-or-minus no-one) was a damn good excuse. Especially, taking into consideration that it gave the opportunity to revive the double guitar attack of the Brewster brothers, in the environment they where born to be in.
The set list was dominated by songs that almost everyone could sing along too. The majority of Face to Face was suitably belted out (Both the Australian and US incarnations). Whether it be the ballad driven songs like Be With You and Love Takes Care or riff-filled rockers like Marseilles the Face to Face takes where professional if not mind-blowing, energetic if not rock-your-world passionate. Songs where given greater meanings and puzzling contexts by the questionably aged and withered Doc Neeson’s (who looked like the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle had treated him a little worse than the rest of the band) strange paranoid, isolationist interjections. The distorted and almost devilish outbursts showed that live The Angels where Doc’s band, despite the power of all the screaming guitars and killer riffs.
But when a classic track started the crowd came along almost immediately. Shadow Boxer, No Secrets (with its successive solos, straight from rock heaven), Face The Day and Fashion and Fame all raised the crowd to a level of drunken unison that demonstrated perfectly how much this band is loved in Adelaide. And Any Angels review would be a waste of time without referring to yet another blistering version of Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again. Its moments like this you remember when the crowd in true traditionalist fashion so fervently and passionately answered the questioning title, on each separate occasion with the now famous response ‘No Way, Get Fu**ed, F**k Off’. You have to be there to understand it but when a choir of drunk voices are shaking the foundations with a cacophony of swearing passion, you feel strangely awesome. And worthy mention goes to their charting cover of The Animals’ We Gotta Get Out Of This Place which sounded so much more aggressive and exciting than the studio version that is famous for being mired in overdone 80’s production.
Nowadays bands like the Angels, famous for their hard living, rock ‘n’ roll and other related shenanigans, instil a little fear in prospective punters that their age is going to get in the way. To a degree it did and while The Brewster’s, Bidstrup and Bailey all had their old personas going, Neeson could of dropped some of the showboating, so effective in his youth, for a bigger commitment to the songs. Doc’s voice was weaker, but his delivery was still right up their. As for The Angels their songs are their weapons, their most attractive asset and in the case of some classics, why we still know who they are today and they won everyone over in a photo finish.
While sceptics may not have enjoyed the show, and been justified in feeling that way, the amount the crowd was loving it and the passion all around covered up some of the problems faced by a band playing their songs so far out of their original context. Despite the tenuous circumstances surrounding their reunion you left you leaving the gig happy that songs won the day and people where content just knowing they’d seen these guys again.
Finishing the show with arguably their hardest rocking number, the crowd remembered what it was like to grow up in Australia living along to pure rock ‘n’ roll, pure fun, pure shouting and screaming and pure ‘Don’t give a shit, decadence’. The crowd ain’t going to Take A Long Line now, the Angels DO exist, they’ve been captured, they’re still drinking and singing, and despite age and self-imposed suffering, they’re still a hell of a good time.
