THE LIVING END
St. Kilda Prince Bandroom
Australia
November 30th
3/5
There's a curious atmosphere in the Bandroom tonight. You'd think The Living End's only Australian gig this year would be a buzzing beehive of expectation, but instead the audience (a mix of die-hard fans and attendees for some tedious showbiz awards bash at the same venue) are simply happy to be here. Nothing wrong with that mind, but you'd expect more a tad more rock n' roll spirit to infuse the proceedings. Still, once the band take to the stage, we're reminded why we like them so much. Tonight's gig is a mixture of old, new and somewhere in between as the boys dust off the studio cobwebs and get to business, and business is, mostly, good. Guitarist Chris Cheney is something of a shredmaster general and it's nice to see a young man in such dapper clothes as the boys tear through their set. Only problem is, while the gig is definitely 'good', it rarely crosses the divide into 'great'. A shame, as this outfit has honed their craft through years of playing toilets and you just know that, were circumstances in their favour, they would be electrifying. Still, we get some good rockin' tonight (spoilt only by a questionable cover of Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally' with vocals courtesy of that chimp from Jet) and everyone leaves happy. I've seen bands do more with less, but perhaps I'm just too cynical. The boys done good.
James Gates
