What better way to warm up a cold winter’s night than seeing two of Australia’s up and coming rock – œn roll bands Airbourne and Hell City Glamours going through their paces. For a bargain basement door charge of thirteen bucks how could you go wrong?

In a week where Guns – œn Roses, Sebastian Bach, Rose Tattoo, Dallas Crane, Super Group Of Insurgent Talent, The Bawdies and The Beasts Of Bourbon whizzed through town there was no doubt that Airbourne could and has mixed it with the best of – œem (and for a fraction of the price).

There was plenty of atmosphere and a lot of interesting characters in the crowd who all had the same idea in mind – “let’s rock the hell off this Saturday night.” Enigma Bar as daggy as it is added to the atmosphere on the night and really did give punters the chance to get right up in the faces of those up on stage. There’s no hiding up there when you’re so close but rock – œn roll is about lots of rough edges and both bands have plenty of those.

From all accounts local legends the Backseat Romeos got proceedings under way in a blaze of glory warming the stage just nicely for The Hell City Glamours. Up next (nearly an hour later) The Hell City Glamours actually got their shit together for their forty-five minute set. By the way they were taking their time anyone would think we have all day to wait around for them. Last time I saw them I was hardly impressed but this time their performance was a huge improvement.

There is something that made me think that these lads are trying a little to hard to be rock stars and that was based purely on – œglamming’ themselves up to look like rock stars. Still, their set was tight featuring songs off their forthcoming album and two EP’s previously released. Their big moment in their set came by way of White Trash Hot Love, which sent the crowd in to a frenzy with some serious slam dancing going on down front.

Just after midnight Airbourne hit the stage and by that stage the crowd wouldn’t have been to far off drinking the bar dry. Airbourne are like the traditional underdog and that’s why so many people are attracted to them. After seeing them four times over the past six months or so each experience is something to relish.

Watching Joel, Ryan, Justin and David walking through the crowd to get up on the stage was just awesome. They looked genuinely excited to be back in Adelaide and ready to serve it up to the punters. The set list included the majority of the new album Runnin’ Wild and the highlights for me were Blackjack, Girls In Black, Cheap Wine & Cheaper Women and Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast. There were a few new songs previously unreleased that got the nod and lets hope they end up on a single sometime.

The parting message, which is so true, is that while they’re still alive – œrock – œn roll will never die’.