Frozen Doberman, The Hell CityGlamours @ The Annandale,Sydney (5/06/10)

Wed 9th Jun, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Mother nature was kind enough to pause the rain as a bevy of older fans put on their dusty Frozen Doberman t-shirts after a decade long absence. The Annandale was alive and kicking as I momentarily ignored the stale urine smell to get stuck into Chinese Burns Unit.

Someone made note how fantastic a name it was and I must agree it’s very catchy and cool The line up is a who’s who of the Australian music scene with Frenzal Rhomb’s Jay Whalley on vocals and the remainder of the quartet derived from Lawnsmell, Grand Fatals and Pure Evil Trio.

Support act The Hell City Glamour’s self-titled album was one of 2008’s most played albums on the home front. I had converted many, who got into their glam groove though disappointingly their performance omitted juice, leaving a lacklustre performance. Sure there was a great deal of spirit but something was missing or perhaps having burnt a hole in the stereo via continuous play I was expecting too much. Favourites Flying Away, Josephine, The Money, In the Cold and Ready to Fall were played with the set ending on White Trash, Hot Love.

Vocalist Oscar’s banter with the audience was fun and light-hearted whilst drummer and Eddie van Halen look alike Robbie pierced the drum kit with the thunder he unleashed. Having said this, the set just seemed a little rushed with the songs flowing into one another and going over my head. This was not the case when they headlined and perhaps that’s where the problem lays.

By the time Frozen Doberman emerged the audience was awash with eager beavers whose haunts included Selinas and The Marquee – back in the day. Vocalist Adam was unrecognisable, long gone were the flowing locks, replaced with a balding head. The sound was unmistakeable.

Apparition and Beautiful Day were awesome as were other songs from their Bonsai album. Adam made up for lost time punching the air and singing his heart out. Bassist Tim and guitarist Red may also be wearing their hair short theses days but their performance was not lacking with some nifty shreds and riffs that assisted the head banging.
It has been a while between drinks and if the objective was to forget that winter was upon us, mission accomplished as the venue heated on exhilaration.

Check out the photos from the gig here