You Am I, The Detroit Cobras,Airbourne @ Metro Theatre,24/06/05

Tue 28th Jun, 2005 in Gig Reviews

Who the hell makes a big fuss of their 11th birthday? I can understand if it’s the ones that end in a zero. 18th birthdays I understand. The 21st is largely irrelevant these days, but I’m not one to quibble over the justification for having a party. While 11 seems an odd number to be celebrating, I’m certainly not going to challenge the validity when if it means You Am I are playing. They still hold the record for the most consecutive nights at this Sydney institution when they played seven shows straight after releasing Hourly Daily with a little band called Powderfinger supporting.

Since then You Am I and Tim Rogers have had their careers played out in full public view, culminating in the much publicised aborted performance at the Falls Festival in Tasmania earlier this year. You Am I fans have a tendency to lean towards to the… fanatical. So the opportunity to see them back together, at The Metro for their 11th birthday, with new songs and exciting supports made the atmosphere a spark.

The buzz surrounding The Detroit Cobras has been similar to when The Strokes famously supported You Am I in 2001. Playing Detroit garage versions of obscure soul songs just sounds like it’ll be great. The record has some spunk and the one original song they have Hotdogs is great fun. Based on that pedigree there is no way they could be shown up by a little known Aussie pub rock band from Warrnambool right? Right? For every to cool for school pose The Detroit Cobras struck, there were the bogans from Airbourne throwing their mullets about. Rachel stood in front of the mic with cigarette in hand moving her hips, Joel was screaming, pulling faces, running everywhere like The Metro was to small for him. The Detroit Cobras bury their sound under guitar fuzz, Airbourne make every riff, lick and chop stab you in the chest. One band made you wonder if they wanted to be there, the other made you realise why you were there. Airbourne came across like they’re the future of rock, The Detroit Cobras came across like just being in the band is supposed to be enough. Exciting and disappointing respectively.

Then You Am I came on. There was no self effacing Tim Rogers, no maudlin pining for his wife and daughter, no subtle nuance, there wasn’t even an acoustic guitar. You Am I came on stage with their foot on the accelerator and didn’t let it go for the 75 minutes they held the crowd in their paws. The Sydney crowd wanted to sing every line of the raucous Purple Sneakers, but there was to much to get through for Rogers to cut them any quarter. Three new songs got a run, Run Nanker Run, Constance George and It Ain’t Funny, all of them loud and noisy and thrilling and enjoying Davey Lane’s stature growing with each scissor kick. There was unexpected camaraderie as band members shared asides and poured each other drinks before kicking into a ripping Junk or dirty Mr Milk or punchy Get Up.

Then they spat the crowd out at the other end with Brad Shepard from Hoodoo Gurus joining them on stage for the most blistering version of The Stooges Search and Destroy since, well they split up. Rogers bounded around the stage singing and moving like Iggy when he was 20. It was the kind of birthday party where everyone got smashed, no one touched the cake and the guest of honour danced nude with a lampshade, and we’re all the better for it.