MONA LISA OVERDRIVE
And speaking of drunk here comes our opening act, and if you can’t see the connection here then clearly you’ve never seen them live before (it’s been too long hasn’t it Alex?). Mona Lisa Overdrive. If the name sounds familiar, yet strangely “unfamiliar”, it’s possibly because you’ve spent the last six months in psychotherapy attempting to forget them ever since they last played in late November. Maybe you still wake up screaming, under the mistaken belief that they’re playing in your bedroom, torchlit under their chins with unearthly grins on their faces; or maybe that’s just me. Either way they were THAT band: Adelaide’s most omnipresent in 2008. You couldn’t get away from them. Like wind up toys and cuckoo clocks they kept on coming back, every damn week, to every damn venue, to every dickhead and their dog (even if no one showed up) till that “Stockholm Syndrome” took hold something fierce and you couldn’t get enough of them. Wow.. to think six months later I actually miss them!? Whoaaa shit! Mona Lisa Overdrive. Sixties psychedelia in the vein of Velvet Underground, there’s truly no other band in Adelaide that’s quite like them. No two sets are ever the same, as chances are no two band members will ever play the same song at the same time. Like an octopus in an avalanche. Like an albatross attempting to breakdance in a tumble dryer. The beats, keys, vox and guitars: sure they don’t fit, like square blocks smashing into round holes, and yet it comes together SO brilliantly! Even better? I don’t think they’ve rehearsed in the last six months either. Best. Gig. EVER! That’s not sarcasm (well ok.. maybe a little) it’s a statement of fact. And it’s all being driven tonight by Alex on drums and vocals. Like a passive aggressive Craig Nicholls spitting out a dictionary he’ll send every song screaming over the abyss unsure over whether he’s meant to be Martin Sheen or Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now (or both at the same time). Normally he’d be reined in by the “animatronic puppets” that surround him: Luke and Dave on guitars, Jess dive bombing the keys, but tonight they’re so damn loose that even free jazz afficionados would explode from the impossible patterns that they weave. I’m loving this shit. They bribed me for my birthday with all their free drink passes (awww guys.. you’re awesome!) all in the hope that I’d write a glowing review. I’m in the corner of this room right now, clawing my face off and screaming, crawling head to toe in imaginary ants; and I’ve got THEM to thank for it! It’s been too long guys. Come back aaanytime!
SHAMAN SON
I’d already seen this second act two weeks ago in this exact same spot and chances are with the exact same setlist too. I could’ve also just as easily copied that entire review word for word and none of you idiots would be any the wiser. As more than likely, just like me, your attention span is SO shot to shit these days thanks to ever present social networkings, google, youtube, wikipedia and bittorrents feeding our every whim and desire every damn second of our day, that not only can you not remember anything that’s happened two weeks ago, let alone last Thursday (or even what you ate for breakfast this morning) but you haven’t slept in well over three weeks either and now for some entirely unexplicable reason both of your kidneys have gone missing. WOOOOO!! Clearly NONE of this shit has anything to do with just how much we binge drink, or all the additives in our food, or all the drugs we’re taking (caffeine? taurine!?), or the fact that all our conversations have been reduced to status updates fuck full of mispelled LOLcat acronyms and half forgotten pop culture references. Just as none of this shit has anything to do with Shaman Son tonight. How were they!? I’m asking you! By this point of the night I’d already downed at least six to seven beers, or maybe even twice that, and I’m already stuffed in a refrigerated filing cabinet somewhere in the Royal Adelaide Hospital whilst my brain floats disembodied in search of a new host. Yup, I’d like to take this moment to personally thank Keenan (aka: “The Metro Gnome”) at The Ed Castle for shouting me one off his bartab earlier this evening, Wokka and Heidi for one over dinner, Kassandra at Rocket Bar for the two $3 beers the minute I walked in here two hours later and Mona Lisa Overdrive for finishing the job. Did I mention that it was my birthday yesterday? Sheeeiiit. Worst. Review. EVER. Shaman Son. I dimly recall they sounded a lot like The Music’s first album and all the best feeding frenzy moments of Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix mixed up with a four car pile up. I vaguely remember their lead singer Ted Dempsey sounding like a lung puncture crossfaded with a bloodclot exploding all over the stage. Rob Webster on the bass exploding OFF the stage. Brendan from Lady Strangelove fucking up all the lights (damn you!). I remember little else. I’m writing this on a Monday still hungover, and if being stupidly drunk, it sounds anywhere as good as THIS? I should never have left! Shaman Son, you rock my teeny tiny peanut brain!
THE AMCATS
And speaking of.. well shit who HASN’T figured the overriding theme by now!? there’s a drinking game I’ve invented in the last few days with THIS exact band in mind! Woweee.. whodathunkit!? Here’s how you play.. trust me, it’s awesome! Get the albums “De Stilj” and the first self titled (I won’t say by who, but take ONE guess). Get our headlining act’s equally exceptional debut EP “Go Amcats Go!” (you guys still selling those?). Rip both to mp3. Strip away any obvious singles (or any of those slow numbers) and throw it all into a shuffled playlist. Line up shot after shot of your preferred poison. Personally I’d pick a tequila shot with a tomato shot / tabasco chaser (but I’ve also been told on good authority that I’m clinically insane). Invite your friends. Fire up the playlist. Try and guess which is which. If you get any of them wrong, down a shot. Trust me. You’ll be in a wheelbarrow and off to the emergency ward in next to no time (but only if any of your friends are still standing to send you on your way). Is this the highest compliment I can give? or biting criticism of the worst disorder? it’s a bit of both really, but they’re more than that. They’re proving their worth, especially live, and with the release of their new seven inch single tonight: “Jang Jang Robot”, The Amcats are finally finding their own unique buzz. It’s all about the energy. That slapstick two tone chemistry. That critical mass in two atoms colliding as all four walls come crashing down around our ears. When you see them live you just can’t get enough of it. That volatile blues shred. That shitcrazy chainsaw, chaingun and chewing gum spit delivery that knows no equal. Especially now (especially after The White Stripes fucked it up by releasing that silly “xylophone record”), especially when you’re THIS drunk. And tonight in song after song “Shancat” and “Rencat” are absolutely killing it. So simple, so whimsically cheesey and yet SO psychotically upbeat all at the same time. Clearly I didn’t remember any of it. Clearly I was SO fargone, on a tailspin trajectory, tearing it up on the dancefloor, that I was a lost cause. But I wouldn’t have it any other way, in any other venue to send me into oblivion. Bring out the fire hoses, the sponges, pick up all those exploded chunks and place them in a pile, it doesn’t matter in what order, I’ll simply reassemble into human form like a T-1000 Terminator and come back for more. Whether you’re Frankenstein, Wolfman or the Tinman, they’ll provide all the mad buzz you’d need!
to listen to their music now on 
