Review
– The Screaming Jets + The Drugs + Heifer
@ Blacktown RSL 30Dec00
What better reminder of where we were and who were the main act than a warm-up backing track that comprised The Radiators, Noiseworks, Dragon, Choir Boys, Divinyls and Cold Chisel?! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Blacktown, and MMM’s favourite sons, the Screaming Jets. But now, here’s a couple of bands that maybe one or two of you might know…
That was about the size of the struggle Heifer and Riverstone’s The Drugs faced tonight. Heifer, whose EP “Mark Mark” had won them acclaim on the Js earlier this year as well as much high-profile exposure across the State, and The Drugs, while more local, play mainly in the City, faced a battle as daunting as trying to make it big on the Sydney live scene. But when Heifer launched into the Intro of their set, they did so as if playing to a room packed with their own. And when Rob bounded on for Shaken To The Core, the crowd didn’t know what had hit them while he joined in the now trademark pogo with Matt, Cliff and Andy. The rest of the set, standouts being Mark Mark, the lighting show, Nancy Boy Surprise and Wicked Weed, churned on “faultlessly with tight, muscly musicianship and heavy, riff-laden infectious grooves” (thanks http://surf.to/heifer for that one!) with Matt playing as if Les Claypool had joined the Chili Peppers, Andy and Cliff echoing the licks of the likes of James Hetfield and Reuben maintaining those way-out-there time signatures prevalent in the genre. The end of the Helmet cover Black Top and then Prick brought a response no one expected (well – maybe the ‘here’s a song the Screaming Jets have done intro helped): a group of guys moved up during the former and ended up singing along with the latter! The curtain closer was Cliff and Rob becoming entangled on the floor. Why don’t you go and….
In discussions with Aaron from The Drugs I felt the mood for the next set to be very different indeed. Aaron is the computer-operator and part-time bassist for the 4-5 piece who, on meeting with vocalist Ian, led me to expect a NIN/Marilyn Manson industrial dirge-styled set. Now, if ever appearances were deceiving then these guys have deception down to an art! On returning to my backstage vantage point (the security had a the memory span of a goldfish which I wasn’t going to test twice) I saw three guys dressed in yellow over-alls, red-striped shirts and Sideshow Bob shoes. The only thing missing was the curly red Ronnie Mac wigs: Take the Teddy Sexuals, add an eclectic anti-establishment attitude with an off-colour but piss-funny intro tape, a couple of spilled instruments and some unsuspecting Jets fans and you’ll get the feel of this second set. The Drugs rock – watch for them!
Half of my reason for coming tonight was to see The Screaming Jets and hopefully to meet my namesake. The vibe was high through the fast-growing crowd (I actually left during Drugs’ tribute to Ricki Lake) but the 22-song set list from which I recognised only 6 tunes, Better being #3, told me this was going to be a fans-only set... (and why the hell would you put Shivers in the encore… don’t you want to come back after that?!) I could have braved it, I could have stuck around for the outcome of that vibe, but… I don’t know; I just didn’t… sorry.
The total pisser of the whole night was that the posters just had Dave and the boys’ details. How up-and-coming bands are supposed to encourage their own followers part with not-so-small door tags to come along to these gigs is beyond me when they’re not able to publicise their presence. Adding some Drugs or Heifer fans to the crowd would really have helped the cause, and maybe (if you look at it from that side) could have added some more heads to the next Jets gig!