The Datsuns, The Casanovas,Swayback @ UniBar, Adelaide,(24/11/06)

Sun 26th Nov, 2006 in Gig Reviews

Big hairy-arsed men thrashing Gibsons through walls of Marshall stacks. Is this the future of rock’n’roll?  Hell no, but it’s a glorious part of our pounding past and present that we should celebrate whenever we get the chance. An inspired piece of promoting, saw local Adelaide swaggerers Swayback join The Casanovas and the mighty Datsuns for one of the best thirty bucks’ worth of rock you’ll get, this, or any other year. Sadly, a late flight meant that I almost missed Swayback which was a real shame as their debut album The Quest for Rock & Roll is a cracker.  Their last couple of songs certainty confirmed that this is one serious ‘band to watch’.

The Casanovas seemed to be down & dirty’s ‘band most likely’ not so long ago but were then overtaken by Jet. Shame really, as there’s little chance of the Casanovas ever sounding like such a bad Oasis cover band. Adding new guitarist Keelan Gallochy has beefed up their sound markedly and they stormed through a terrific set of new songs from All Night Long peppered with old favourites. Heartbreaker and Born to Run will soon be giving Nasty and 10 outa 10 a run for their money as crowd favourites.

From the crashing opening chords of Who Are You Stamping Your Foot For, it was The Datsuns who stamped their class all over this gig.  From the clean more than mean streets of Cambridge NZ, da bruddas Datsun showed just how far ahead of the gonzo guitar rock game they really are. Dolf, Phil and Christian seemed to have about an extra 9 inches of fretboard each compared to the other bands and every time you thought they’d cranked it up as far as they could, there was always another gear. New songs from Smoke and Mirrors showed what a welcome return to form this album is but naturally the mosh pit saved their most inventive air-guitar playing for Motherfucker from Hell, Lady and a gloriously frantic extended version of Fink for the Man. A couple of delicious homages to The Ramones and The Misfits with Tommy Boyce from The Casanovas joining them, raised the fun quotient of the night even higher.

Datsuns nothin’. Tonight, we were treated to a ride in the front seat with the Ferraris of fast and loud.

The Datsuns Photo Gallery