After surviving a day when the temperature reached 46.4 degrees C here in the city, it was a much more comfortable sub-30 degree day for the St Kilda Festival.
The Galvatrons were a much better prospect in a late afternoon festival slot than they were at an almost empty Rod Laver Arena when opening up for Def Leppard and Cheap Trick a while back. They have energy in abundance, a confident swagger and a few catchy hooks, with the sizeable crowd eager to lap up their brand of pop/rock. There were a fair few peeps jigging around down the front and a fairly raucous reaction to most of their set, especially the recent single Robots Are Cool, but there were a couple of problems too. First up the guitar sound was horrible. How a Gibson Explorer through a Marshall half stack can be made to sound so toneless is anybodies guess, but the fuzzy-grungy mess blasting from the excellent PA failed to deliver. The other issue is the keyboards. Yeah, it’s great to have the keys out at the front of the stage rather than tucked away at the back with the tub-thumper, but that doesn’t mean the damn things have to be so high in the mix. Especially as the sounds seem to be lifted straight from Van Halen’s old chestnut Jump, or maybe Europe’s pop-tastic The Final Countdown – it was 80s sounds all the way, and not in a good way. Guys, either get the sound man to tone things down a bit, or get some new patches for the damn synth. Anyway, they were kinda fun and seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, which is always good to see.
A few hours and a couple of beers later it was time for the pumped up Aussie party animal The Angels. There’s a bit of a false start though, as one of the Brewster brothers gear isn’t actually working, so the rest of the band grind through a chugging riff while the guitar tech frantically tries to make the Vox/Fender amp combination at the back make a sound, but as soon as the guitar was plugged directly into the Fender part of the amp set-up everything burst into life. Once they eventually get going the set is an edited greatest hits kinda thing as they only have an hour, but the punters got to sing along to No Secrets, Shadowboxer and a rocked up We Gotta Get Outta This Place, plus shout along to Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again or groove to the super-cool Face The Day. They went bonkers for the whole thing, with crowd surfing (sometimes with/on an inflatable mattress thing, sometimes not), mosh pits, a couple of fist, dancin’ and generally kicking up dust – all while the sun went down behind the stage and the cool lighting rig starts to have more of an impact. Doc Neeson did his normal semi-theatrical routine with the fake tux and red scarf, plus the battered tambourine and maracas make an appearance too. He borrowed a sailor’s hat from a hot girl at the front for set closer Marseille, and they even get to come back out for an encore despite already having run over their allocated time. In a word: Brilliant.
to listen to their music now on 
