It has been a long a long while since I have been to an All Ages event and I was interested to see what was out there for the kids….I was to be pleasantly surprised…and who in their right mind could pass up an opportunity to see some of Australia’s finest acts such as The Living End, Spiderbait, Spazzys and Dallas Crane under the one roof!?!

The Coke Live ‘n’ Local initiative is a unique touring event that showcases some of Australia’s more established acts as well as the emerging talent. With the states finalist of the unsigned competition playing the gig in their home town. To kick off the early evening first up was the Victorian winner The Gear who played to a small and enthusiastic crowd.

It was clear to see just how much of a corporate sponsored event this was, with the Coca Cola logo shining brightly from the stage between bands, along with advertisements and video footage of interviews with band members, all the way to the Coca Cola merchandise displayed by some of the young punters.

With the roof to the Rod laver Arena closed keeping the effervescent tomes of the Spazzys in, we knew we were in for a loud and rockin’ time. The girls, minus the usual pigtales, were warming up the restless crowd playing many of their tracks off Aloha Go Bananas, like My Boyfriends Back and Sunshine Drive. It really is refreshing to see that there are these sorts of events on for the under 18s, the average age tonight was I’d say approximately 17, but I saw many smaller, younger music lovers too.

The atmosphere was lacking as I find these stadium type gigs tend to be. They are more impersonal, the sound quality usually ‘lost’ and kind of empty, however tonight it was a clear, clean and crisp sound.

Between acts there was minimal entertainment, with Weapon X and Ken Hall MC-ing the night, hyping up the crowd even if sporadic and seemed to fail to keep the momentum going.

P Money burst onto the stage in the usual hip hop manner with the ‘retarded’ half walk, half run. His set failed to impress me and much of the crowd and came across as a complete cliché and karaoke type set with a toe tapping beat, however failed miserably to get any of the kids up and dancing. That was until he played some more ‘rock’ tunes such as Nirvana’s Teen Spirit in between bursts of telling us to ‘say fuck you maestro’, complete with his evil sounding laugh inspired by Gorillaz, whatever that was all about!?!

By the time Dallas Crane graced the stage and Dave Larkin shouted ‘hey hey, what are you doing up there in the stands, why don’t you come down to the floor?’ they had launched into Ladybird. Cranking out their upbeat rock tunes Iodine complete with red atmospheric lighting, this is exactly what we wanted. Dallas Crane have come a long way from their beginnings at the smaller band venues around this very town. Also playing a new track of theirs No Through Road. Dave interacted with us relaying how the band have travelled around the country and seen many audiences but ‘they are not a patch on you’ which sent us into uproarious applause.

With the rise of reality TV and the pap that is Idol, Dave commented that there are ‘two types of people, there are those at home watching Idol and there are you…’ that are watching some top quality Aussie acts. Ending on Wrong Party which had the entire stadium moving and ready for a bit of  Spiderbait action.

The amount of eyes facing the stage had swelled as a little country ditty was piped to the hungry punters. Spiderbait took to the stage with Kram bellowing “how’s it going Melbourne?” straight to business “make some fucking noise” as they launched into Take Me Back. Kram in his usual jolly mood and just as excited to be here as much as we were. Spiderbait pulled out  firm favourites.

The team from Spiderbait  have been playing now for 15 years and haven’t lost any enthusiasm and neither had the punters for other tracks from older albums such as Buy Me A Pony. After asking “what do you wanna hear” knowing full well Black Betty was going to be the song of choice, he said “but first we’re gona play you our new single On My Way. Spiderbait sounded just awesome tonight, heavy bass, crisp guitar and powerful drums.

Last but certainly not least, The Living End, the only band to have their own backdrop, came to the stage amidst the sound of some classical music. This serenity was soon to be shattered by the familiar West End Riot and Tabloid Magazine. Chris Cheney suggesting for  us to go and buy their new single What’s On Your Radio “if you like it…if you don’t, put the $2 back in your pocket.” There’s no doubt about it, The Living End brought their boyish energy to the stage, making for some very happy music lovers. Considering any mention at all of the name The Living End bringing a cheer from the crowd, the antics of Scott Owen standing on his double bass as they gave us more of their singles All Torn Down and the anthem Prisoner Of Society. These guys ooze talent and showed it off to us by giving us an instrumental. Chris seemed to momentarily forget who he was playing to, by welcoming everyone backstage to have a drink, then saying he “shouldn’t have said that”. After Save Us and Second Solution they ended their set with loads of noise and fanfare, leaving their instruments in disarray. That marked the end of the second successful Coke Live 05 tour!