The Datsuns @ The Rocket Room(10/12/08)

Mon 15th Dec, 2008 in Gig Reviews

Edgy cabaret oozing with hanging questions of sexuality and a stern underpinning of darkness is no mean feat in modern performance. Especially when your ploy is spangled with glitter and a wardrobe that would have made the re-embodiment of every six-year-old girl weep with joy. But that is how Tomas Ford definitely rolls.
Even though his set was destined to start more than an hour after the doors opened for industry preppies and gangling musicians hoping to score free booze, his performance was already in full swing before the first note croaked into play. Lunching on small unpretentious small talk with as many people in fingers breath of him, it was easy to see he was sowing the false seeds of harmony counting down for his moment to shatter all. And shatter Ford did, albeit in his customary and deeply unsettling fashion.
His gorgeous smash of electro punk drenched in serious black humour is overall considered by many to be a complete piss-take. But there seemed to be a lot of the starring faces in the crowd that night which had seen his glam splat a ridiculous number of times and knew that there was a little bit more substance to his ironic in-your-face antics.
Whether he was clambering over tables and bars or gyrating on middle-aged men and commenting on hooters t-shirts, Ford has a precious way of using his medium to actually make logical points about the debauchery of modern night life and its saucy nature. And though there are times in the midst of him trying to single you out that you can imagine how delicious it would be to take that microphone he is holding and do something rather impolite with it, you have got to give the man some credit for having the balls to do it.
The Datsuns really have lived a funny old life for some. Rising from the depths of small town obscurity in Cambridge, New Zealand to all sorts of glorious, and utterly hilarious, heights on the wave of garage rock that was heralded by The Vines and their success. But as soon as people started realising that the over-hyped Vines really were piss-ants with instruments, every other band stereotyped felt the waves crashing down. Leading to the sophomore slump of these kiwi kids and the completely overlooked release of there 2008 Head Stunts EPs.
But the many crew that have heckled the Datsuns’ efforts for the past two years were tackling the four lads in a different light that eve. They were treating them with the warm welcome of comrades fresh home from the slaughter. Maybe that comparison is a little too hardcore for their brand of rock.
The first notable tune was the odd selection of System Overload, odd being that it definitely did not kick the proceedings off with the stab we all were looking for at this time of the night. But the kiwis picked up the do-or-die vibe and then hamfistedly served its warmer cousin Harmonic generator. Catchy-as-fuck, it was not hard to feel the blood coursing through your veins when vocalist Dolf de Dorst ripped into the simple chorus as if it was foreplay for the home run. After a few prance numbers, punters were left feeling a bit torn as to whether this was all just a little to mediocre for their liking. That was until Motherfucker From Hell firmly sent them home crying to their mothers for sympathy. Needless to say that was the end of the official set of mostly filler. Filler that was almost on the edge of being quality. Then they came back to pull off a flawless cover of the Ramones The KKK Took My Baby Away. So let us not shun them completely, it was mildly entertaining.