The Dwarves, Mach Pelican,Interstater @ Ding DongLounge, 18/2/05

Mon 21st Feb, 2005 in Gig Reviews

It was with a great deal of excitement, and a slight bit of trepidation, that I headed to my first ever Dwarves show.  With stories of banned albums, blood-baths, and one song sets spanning their history of over 20 years, I was tipping that this would be a show to remember.

Opening the night was Melbourne’s Interstater who have quietly been playing around the traps for a couple of years.  They started with New Royals to a handful of punters near the front of the stage.  Singer Mickey B, who sounds as if he is singing through a cheese grater (in a good way), gives the band a uniquely Australian sound.  Guitarist Matt provided most of the guitar action, pulling out a couple of solos that may well have melted some of the Ding Dong’s paintwork.  He worked in counterpoint with other guitarist Cory for much of the set a la Turbonegro or the Hellacopters.  Drummer Paul, who looks like he’d be at home in a spandex bodysuit and a revolving drum-kit, provided the rapid-fire skins work to keep them in check.  Cory and bassist, Merinda had a few bouts of onstage guitar-fencing for added visual entertainment. The band ran through a number of songs from their debut album including theme song Interstater, the gender-bending Carpark ‘O Fear, and the hilarious Don’t Fuck With The Cook.  By the end of their set, a sizable crowd had gathered front of stage.  The Fresh Price of Darkness joined them for a triple axe attack during the last couple of songs of their fine set.

Up next were Melburnian bubblegum oi-oi-oi punksters, Mach Pelican.  I reckon they’d make great cartoon characters in a Gorillaz-style filmclip – guitarist K-Rock and his trucker’s cap, mop-topped bassist Atsu, and the tre-suave Toshi on drums.  The band got the expectant crowd’s heads a-bobbing and feet a-tapping (and even sparklers a-lighting during Rock ‘n Roll Honesty) with their brand of no-nonsense 3 chord punk rawk.  With their good buddies the Spazzys sitting pretty in the AIR charts for a number of months, we may well see similar attention being paid to the ‘Pelican lads later this year.

As HeWhoCannotBeNamed walked out on stage wearing nothing but his infamous mask, a triumphant crowd roared as Dwarves-styled debauchery was on its way.  The other members of the self-proclaimed “best band ever” assembled, and they ripped straight into Dominator from their latest album, The Dwarves Must Die.  There was to be no sampling or genre-hopping as appears in that album - just two guitars, bass, drums, some strutting, and a whole lotta good-natured fury.

Blag Dahlia proved to be the fantastic frontman he had promised to be in interviews.  He patrolled the stage with fingerless gloves, lapping up the energy of his legion of disciples.  He shared vocal duties for much of the night with fans in the first few rows.  Initially, I thought tonight’s line-up included a new celebrity cameo in the form of Roger Federer on bass, with his lemon-coloured tennis gear and brunette locks.  On second thoughts I thought it was Clint Torres, but who can really keep up with the Dwarves’ line-up and moniker changes?!  The Fresh Prince of Darkness proved to be the guitar hero of the band, and HeWhoCannotBeNamed’s facial expressions, and methods of darting about the stage, have to be seen to be believed.

The Dwarves are from the same school as the Ramones and Zeke, punching out riff-based punk ‘n roll tunes that you could miss if you blinked.  Their one minute long songs would take most other bands over three minutes to get through.  Barely taking a breath, they ran through songs about voilence, sex, drugs, murder and other such dinner-table topics. Classics such as Let’s Fuck and Detention Girl were given an airing.  Blag promised that the next night would be an entirely different set for those lucky enough to be going again.

Looking around the venue, I was surprised to see that it was only around half full.  Let’s hope Melburnians were saving themselves for the next night’s show at the same venue – bands this good don’t visit town regularly.  Those lucky enough to be in attendance gave it their all - shouting out the lyrics, jumping around, and I even witnessed crowd-surfing action for the first time at Ding Dong.

After 40 minutes and around 25 songs it was over.  There was no encore, and luckily no blood-bath.  I suspect the band headed straight into hyberbaric treatment on their muscles, in order to get ready for the next night’s onslaught.  Here’s hoping The Dwarves don’t die, and are back here very soon!