So where to start? Oh yeah – The Silents. To be honest I had heard much, expected quite a bit, and thought very little. Whilst their recorded psychedelic indie garage is bursting with promise, what they had to offer tonight was a messy array of noise that no-one wanted to hear. Besides the tough audience (who clearly cared naught for anyone but the main act), this Perth quartet made me wonder if the only reason they are touring with The Living End is because they have a new album Things To Learn due out soon and their agent knows someone who knows someone. Unfortunately, this was neither the time nor place for The Silents.
Melbourne three-piece Children Collide (who this week get the once-in-a-lifetime chance to make jokes about a Large Children Collider!) faced just as tough a crowd for the first half of their post-hardcore-slash-disco set (weirdly reminiscent of Brisbane’s very own Statue:Stature), with their ‘next big thing’ sound of whiny, androgynous vocals, The Cure-like bass and driving kit. Farewell Rocketship is presented as an unofficial ‘International Talk Like A Pirate Day’ 6/8 tempo sea shanty, followed by a soothing ¾ metre instrumental. Social Currency evokes a bit of mewithoutyou, and finally musters some crowd response. We Are Amphibious – the B-side of 2005’s We Three, Brave And True 6-track EP and reprised as the A-side of 2006’s Glass Mountain Liars EP is unleashed not a moment too soon, and dissolves into an instrumental jam that get’s the crowd – gasp – participating. Clapping, even.
Chris Cheney ’s overt lyrics – “I may not believe in God, it doesn’t mean that I’m a lesser person” – and snug polo shirt (?) do nothing to dampen the enthusiasm for The Living End ’s opener, Raise The Alarm. I Can’t Give You What I Haven’t Got is unleashed as the trio’s second track for tonight and reinforces why Cheney’s phenomenal fretwork has earnt him the Australian first of his own Gretsch signature series instrument – the White Falcon.
A stomping drum & guitar passage introduces the crowd to the rockabilly of What’s On Your Radio, reverberating through Scott Owen’s momentarily idle dual Ampeg cabinets and threatening to cause a power failure. Cheney dedicates the Lovecats-esque We Want More from 2006’s State Of Emergency “to all the nymphos” whilst doing his unintentional best impression of Eddie Izzard.
Moment In The Sun, All Torn Down (with echoes of Mark Knopfler in the guitar solo), Who’s Gonna Save Us? and Make The Call fly by before a cheeky cover of the Choir Boys’ Run To Paradise provides the soundtrack for a small army of punters to leave due to the temperature of the Arena being 10 degrees higher than outside. Lucky it ain’t summer. Run To Paradise morphs into Roll On and the vocal reverb adds even more of a Pink Floyd feel to the ‘education’, ‘manipulation’ lyrics.
Those enduring the sweltering (yet comparatively mild for the Arena) conditions were duly rewarded with Cheney and Owen pulling off ridiculous acrobatic maneuvers (Cheney balancing on Owen’s bass) during West End Riot, and an incredibly fast White Noise, which Cheney reins back to tempo in the verses. At this point the Queensland heat has led Cheney along with the usually impeccably dressed drummer Andy Strachan to shed their two-sizes-too-small polos and don only their wifebeaters, whilst Owen opts to go shirtless.
Listen Up Suzy (_White Noise_ album bonus track) and one half of the double A-side that started it all – Second Solution -, along with some Blues Brothers guitar riffage are offered as encores and the crowd is coerced into karaoke through good old-fashioned rivalry and flattery. “We went to Perth, Darwin and the Gold Coast – they couldn’t sing for shit. Towoomba were fucking great! But when it comes to singing along, there’s nowhere like Brisbane!” For this punter the White Noise closer Sum Of Us – mixing the vocal best of Sublime with the carefree feel of Led Zeppelin’s D’Yer Mak’er – is conspicuous by its absence.
The Living End played the hell out of their set – not once did it drag – and entertained more than any Brisbane show, international or otherwise, of recent weeks. These guys have always kicked ass live and have added to their artillery with the songwriting clout and classic 70s swagger of White Noise. Expect to see a whole lotta love from this trio on the summer festival circuit.
