Electric Six, The Camels, RossOrbit Stack @ The AnnandaleHotel, 27/07/04

Fri 30th Jul, 2004 in Gig Reviews

One of the best things in life is fun. I know that’s so ludicrously obvious that saying it seems redundant, but it can be easy to forget sometimes. With so many perverts, junkies, war, famine, disease and heartbreak, I think it’s sort of necessary to point out how awesome fun actually is. From pressing the ‘dinger’ on a bus as a youngster to hitting the piss with your mates to dancing spastically at home when no one’s around, the value of good fun cannot be underestimated.

 

And Electric Six are bloody fun. Inhabiting a world of gay bars and nuclear wars and dance commanders and Taco Bells, their music is so retardedly fun that claiming otherwise would represent a terrible fallacy. The frantic surf-guitar strains of Gay Bar - whether pumped through the speakers of a club, or played through tinny computer speakers – is so obviously fun-inducing that whenever I hear it I feel the need to mosh like an awkward 14-year old.

 

And then it seems somehow apt to me – but probably to no one else – that I should review this show not through ‘well-composed’ prose, but through my notes taken on the night. I was – unsurprisingly – quite drunk, but sober enough to write down extensive notes as I jumped up and down spastically for a good amount of the gig. Such a viscerally entertaining show deserves a certain immediacy in my review, and as such, here are my notes with the occasional annotation:

 

‘Ross Orbit Stack...definitely find album…I think from Hoey thing? [Ross Orbit Stack won the 2003 Hopetoun Incentive Program]...They’re having fun…I’m having fun…Note this is a good combination…Good music and no posing, gotta love that…Taste of ‘04!’

 

‘Camels...fucking awesome…fun, exuberant rock ‘n’ roll with two giant capital Rs…Awesome haircut…Where’d You Get It Cut I Might Go There! [Seemingly unnecessary Vanlustbader reference]...Seriously Best Haircuts…Note: Start a band like these guys…Taste of ‘04 too!’

 

‘Electrix Six…Going off, off, off…Dicky [lead singer] says the Camels have an anal fissure…Gay Bar makes me want to headbutt myself in a good way…Danger! Danger! High Voltage! is incredible…Bassist and guitarist seem to be identical twins [Not sure if that’s true]...Other guitarist is cheeky and is loving it…Dicky Valentine is the new Jagger except cheekier and more fun…Note: Start a band like these guys too…Who is the Dance Commander? I bet he goes nuts…How Can Man Be So Oppressed When We Are All Born Free? (And When Electric Six Are So Good?)...Want to marry Dicky in a totally not gay way…Ok maybe a little gay.’

 

Yep, the notes say it all. Ross Orbit Stack, The Camels and Electric Six delivered a night of stupendous fun that made me feel like I was pressing the ‘dinger’ on the bus as a six-year-old all night long.