With the almost 700 strong crowd almost entirely present to see the last of Abbe May and the Rockin’ Pneumonia cranking out their latest Triple J hit Howl and Moan, anticipation was high as the crowd packed the band room. Wandering onstage to some inspirational Jay-Z, Jed Kurzel and Cec Condon strutted out with all the swagger of seasoned rock n’ rollers. Kurzel with his rugged good looks was sharp in his fitted leather jacket, but it was Condon that drew the most attention. He has the skinny, white-boy rock look down to a tee but his amazing afro takes centre stage. Well manicured into a disco ‘fro, a perfect ball encasing his head with bits going in every direction when he savaged the skins. He had a maraca tucked into his belt like a Wild West gunslinger in Desperado.
Opening with their trademark heavy riffing, the sound was turned up to ear bleeding and away they went into the garage swamp rock that has served them so well. Kurzel’s vocals sound unmistakably like that of former INXS front man Michael Hutchence, if he had been brought up on bluegrass and blues. They nonchalantly flew through their first few tracks and the crowd soon moved from intense head nodding to jumping around and having a jolly old time.
Condon drives the show and sound, filling out the structure of songs with his rhythmic and creative drumming and Kurzel adds the colour and flair with his guitar and voice. While the Jet comparisons can be a little tempting, their lack of extra personnel enables their sound to be uncluttered and the sublime drumming, surf guitar and tailored vocals to shine through. It can be assumed that two piece bands justify turning up the levels since there are only two of them so the more noise the better. There was an extra cheer when Condon un-holstered his maraca and started going to work with it in one hand and a stick in the other.
The boys sounded beefier and rockier than the album, so when the normally timid Devils Elbow track Cookies was kicked off, one excitable young man became the first crowd surfer of the night. Kurzel didn’t miss the irony, remarking; “It’s a weird song to mosh to, but whatever floats your boat.” Some more old and new songs were dished out to the well-rowdy front and centre crowd. Most of whom lost their collective merde on hearing the cowbell intro of Keep Walking. Another mosh started up and a couple more crowd surfers got that bit closer to God and it became evident how tight and in-sync the two are with every drum beat and guitar riff.
Walking off the stage with a minimum of fuss and acknowledgment, The Mess Hall left their fans with a wall of feedback, and not much else, until the crowd’s repetitive chanting pulled their heart stings and they returned to rowdy cheers and whistles. Kurzel announced “It’s time to make this a disco party” and launched into Notes from a Ceiling favourite, Disco 1 for the one song encore.
Short, sharp and blisteringly loud, The Mess Hall reminded all in attendance that rock n’ roll is alive and well in Australia and should be for many more years to come.
