Guttermouth @ The Hifi,Melbourne (07/12/2009)

Thu 10th Dec, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Guttermouth aren’t a band that age well. Their target audience 15 years ago were 14 year old renegade schoolboys, and not unexpectedly, their audience are the same renegade school boys, just 15 years older. Whilst their music and attitude have wavered little in this time, their appeal to today’s 14 year old bad boys just isn’t what it used to be. Guttermouth seem fail to capture the imagination of any new fan base, but its those fans from the mid 90s who have come to see them tonight, keen to revive memories of their days before punk music suddenly turned commercial.

Sadly however, the venue is barely half full, and but for the 20 or so punters getting their crazy on up the front, there is a distinct lack of atmosphere across the venue.

As the band stroll out onto the stage barely being noticed, the drummer is quick to apologise in advance for vomiting during the show. The sad part is, he isn’t joking, and the rest of the band members aren’t immune either, as the crowd begin to throw coins at them. Somewhat embarrassingly they attest that it’s a pretty decent turnout for a Monday night, they open up with Bakers Dozen from their 1997 album Musical Monkey, where upon the collective quickly lose their shit.

Frontman Mark Adkins, looking like a rabid long lost brother of Iggy Pop and John Paul Young is doing his best for the sparse crowd, throwing himself across the stage in an endless display of enthusiasm and energy, even if he does heckle members of the crowd between songs. She’s Got The Look, Shine a Light, Foot Long and Let’s Kung Fu continue to keep the punters happy, but the evening starts do degenerate into a state of disrepair. Most disturbingly the bald man standing next to me found it necessary to do away with all items of clothing as he casually wanders into the pit stark naked, oblivious to the look of horror on the faces of crowd around him. He’s swiftly pounced on by security and escorted out of the venue (and while the atmosphere was a little frosty, it wasn’t that cold). The fun doesn’t stop there though, with the drummer coming good on his advanced apology for vomiting on stage, hurling multiple times at his drum kit, much to the delight of the mindless throng who are up lapping every moment.

Whilst the jokes were funny to begin with, I’m starting to wonder whether I’m laughing with Guttermouth or laughing at them. As they stagger back on stage for a short encore, the band are left waiting while the drummer barfs some more, and after set closer Surf’s up Asshole the crowd are almost relieved that it’s all over.

All in all, Guttermouth put on a good live performance, but the poo and wee and fart jokes were funny when the punters entering puberty not in their mid twenties and when the guy telling them is in his 40s and should know better. But this is part of the experience that is a Guttermouth gig and if you can make a living like these boys do, it’s no wonder there are so many toned down copycat acts out there trying to make the FM radio grade. If they can last as long as Guttermouth have, the cycle will no doubt continue.