New York Dolls, Hits andVelociraptor @ The Hi Fi(13.10.2011)

Mon 17th Oct, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Skinny jeans, leather jackets, sunnies on stage and bedazzled tops that barely cover the front man’s midriff, all well worn rock and roll clichés (okay so maybe not the bedazzled tops), but at least with the New York Dolls there’s a fairly high chance they invented that look. With an explosive and short lived career in the 1970’s the Dolls reformed in 2004 and brought their glam rock and roll show back to Brisbane on Thursday night as part of The Boroughs showcase.

With the first band up for the night unfortunately cancelling last minute, a rather dismally small crowd watched Brisbane’s Velociraptor kick off the showing, tearing up the stage with their overcrowded and energetic antics. The high energy theme continue with Hits showing off their fast paced, bass and drum driven rock and roll. Sadly their on stage antics left a lot to be desired with their disjointed stage presence and continual F bombs. Swearing for emphasis…fair enough, swearing because you can’t be bothered to string coherent words together, it’s a little bit tedious.

Thankfully, the band soon left and the New York Dolls hit the stage with their oh so classic rock and roll swagger. The band put on a thoroughly engaging and entertaining set, running through a selection of songs including Fabulous Rant, Talk to Me Baby and ’Cause I Sez So. As expected, the band wasn’t quite as energetic as the support acts, and the breaks between the songs were a fair bit longer than usual, but still, the New York Doll proved that rock and roll has no age limit, with time not tainting their musical and vocal abilities.

Despite the tight musical performance and strong vocals, the band failed to please some punters with a large group leaving part way through the set and moaning about the lack of energy, a somewhat naive complaint given the age of the band. However on the whole, the band seemed to please the remaining punters with a small mosh pit forming and the eclectic crowd dancing and singing along.

Perhaps the early leavers did have a point, as the show really did die down in terms of on stage energy, however, the enthusiasm and charm of the band members more than made up for their lack of acrobatics. Whatever criticism has been thrown their way in the past, particularly a rather scathing remark about being the poor man’s Rolling Stones, the New York Dolls proved that sometimes originality isn’t everything in rock and roll and sometimes, all you need is a good beat and a solid riff to get your feet moving.