There wasn’t an ego in sight at the cosy old Vic on the Park last Saturday. Anyone that was anyone, or that had any money was at Homebake  – but for the rest of us -  worn, torn and too old to go to music festivals, there was Clambake. And what a night it was.

Kicking off with the woman wot rock girl band Squat and Lismore three piece garage punkers Special Patrol Group, the room was alive with loud amps and energy. It was a surprisingly good turn out considering that most people were at the Domain.

At headline time Thundabox picked up the pace with their whacked out, clapped out, off the wall beer punk rock. With a Latvian drummer, Imants, Slovenian bass player, Mick and two seventh day adventist Lismorians on lead guitars and words (Pete and Shelfy – apparently they don’t do church anymore) you haven’t seen a band like Thundabox. Well okay, maybe you have if you’ve ever seen the Cosmic Pyschos cover the Ramones after TISM have rearranged the lyrics.

Still a relatively new band, the ‘Box formed about 20 months ago at 3am at Sydney’s Town Hall Hotel in Newtown. Born out of sheer boredom and fuelled by beer, these four lads are closer to forty than thirty and there’s not a bar person in all of Sydney’s inner west that they don’t know on a first name basis. Tonight at Clambake, Thundabox are all about enthusiasm, mateship and humour.

And if you need only one reason to taste test the band it would be to see Shelfy’s megaphone helmet in action for the Start It Up song. A number that had the crowd in rock stitches. Still mastering their instruments and with the world’s strongest drummer- Thundabox comes straight out of the PA, mono style, and slaps you in the head like a frozen fish. It may not look the best and you need to thaw it out properly before you can do anything with it, but its well worth the effort.

Playing mostly tracks from their debut album Here To Ruffle Ya Feathers, due for release soon, they won over more than a few smiles with Dickheads and the lyrics ‘We might be dickheads but we’re really nice guys’. They also played My Mates Are Cunts a song that deserves the Yob Punk genre if ever a song did. And it got even better with Kayla a song about a stripper in Sydney and lyrics like “Kayla’s got the moves and she’s got the boobys”.

Surprisingly though, this band’s humour works on a non-offensive level – or at least I’m female and I wasn’t offended. Perhaps it’s because they’re still new and excited or perhaps they’re just lacking in ego but there is definitely warmth to the this band. On a close listen, some of the slower songs like Alone and Memories Of You are actually quite personal and serious. But whatever it is, there’s a rawness to this band that has four blokes making music about their average lives and hearts and somehow it gets the them over the line. Something that we miss in the trendy new rock genre. Do yourself a big favour and get to a Thundabox gig in the future.