One thing about Australian veterans The Angels is that they never put on a bad show. The year 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of their now legendary second album Face To Face, of which seven of ten tracks received an airing tonight. All sound just as good the first time you heard them on then rock radio station 5KA all those years ago…if you happen to remember that far back! My only beef with this gig is that it wasn’t loud enough. Seems bizarre for an Angels show. But that aside, they did rock the mainly black t-shirt clad crowd.

Kicking off with Face To Face’s second track After The Rain, the night was set to be a nostalgia trip. Next up was a very early track Who Rings the Bell, itself over 30 years old. By the time Fashion and Fame was played, lead singer and Australian rock icon Doc Neeson had his stage theatrics down pat using the stage lights to his advantage. He suffered a horrific car accident late in 1999 and for a while there it seemed he wouldn’t ever recover fully to perform again. Then, to make things worse, there was interband conflict where band members only talked to each other through their lawyers. They only reconvened this year. But we won’t go into that, we’ve all read about it. The brilliant Dogs Are Talking off one of their best albums to date Beyond Salvation proved a huge crowd favourite. Its high energy and punchy guitar lines aroused the parts of the crowd who were waiting for the song to get them going. It almost worked except for an equipemnt malfunction close to the end of the track. It was quickly rectified and the show went on without another. Doc was on fire as a frontman. He hasn’t and never will fully recover from that bad rear end accident but he was moving better than the comeback gig at The Gov only a few months ago.

The remainder of the first set was a greatest hits set of high calibre; it was a Triple M listener’s wet dream. The Angels are best known for the rockier tracks, but there is a softer side to the hard rockers. Love Takes Care and Be With You played in sequence; much like on their brilliant live album Liveline brought the crowd together. Grown men, beers aloft, arms around each other singing at the top of their lungs. The song everyone has been waiting for gets an early play. Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again receives a massive roar of approval. The crowd itching to sing the line ‘No way, get f*cked, f*ck off!’ I don’t think the crowd or Australia will ever get sick of singing that line. The first set concluded with one of their best known live tracks Marseilles. It features one of Australia’s best guitar riffs and shows why they were an influence on such bands like Guns ‘n’ Roses.

They didn’t waste much time backstage before coming back on stage to the crowd chants of ‘Angels, Angels!’ at the top of their lungs. They finished off the successful return to form show with The City Is Out Of Control and Take A Long Line with Sam Brewster taking over guitar duties like a 10 year veteran for the entire show because his father John Brewster was sick. The Angels prove once again that even after a life threatening car crash and unnecessary band squabbling that they can still rock after all these years, louder than some of the new breed of bands today.

Setlist:
After the Rain
Who Rings the Bell
Fashion and Fame
Dogs Are Talking
No Secrets
Coming Down
Can’t Shake It
Love Takes Care
Be With You
Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again
Face The Day
I Ain’t The One
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
Shadow Boxer
Marseilles

Encore:
The City Is Out Of Control
Take a Long Line