Reviews- Goldmans

         Endure the mandatory ID check (even the guy in front of me with greying hair got asked...guess it helps keep the bouncers occupied), navigate a few flights of stairs and you're there- the unique surrounds of Goldmans. 78 Saab already on stage, offering up some inoffensive indie rock of the slightly noisier kind, nice and loud but ultimately they just aint my preferred cup of hot vomit.

          For some reason I can picture Six Ft. Hicks' two frontmen, brothers Ben and Geoff Corbet, being the sort of attention-seeking siblings who as kids used to light their farts for a party trick (probably still do). "Give it up for the bad" urges one of the brothers Corbet (no relation to Ronnie), thinking he's Speedo from Rocket From the Crypt for a second, the reserved crowd giving up little but polite applause in response. Time to get those Six Ft. Hick lighters out I reckon.

         Unperturbed, they do their best to provoke some sort of response with one about "Satan, our mother and father on fire" (did I hear right?). While Cousins we're told is "about fuckin' your cousins"- they're from Brisband , okay?

          Damn entertaining that's for sure, let down only by a drummer who's more of a tapper than a hitter (hit the things will ya!) and a PA that sounded like it was about to pack it in. The Hicks dispatching truckloads of full tilt greasy mutton chop sportin' cowpunk and filthy redneck rock 'n' roll. Love it. Wrong way to experience 'em but- not hot enough, not cramped enough and not enough inebriated punters.

          Great to see Shihad back in Sydney again dispatching some prime rock action. Hopefully we'll get to see more of them now that they've made the switch from Auckland to Melbourne (ummm...is it just me or did he get it wrong? -evelyn). The General Electric, title track fromt heir forthcoming album along with current single My Mind's Sedate (a tribute to AC/DC's Let there be rock if there ever was one) serve to reassure me that they haven't mellowed too much with their new material, which we get plenty of tonight.

          It's not all crunching rock though, with shihad pushing their sound in all sorts of disparate directions. Drummer Tom Larkin clamps a pair of headphones on and tey launch into the electro enhanced "Wait and See", followed by the driving "Thin white line". From their "Killjoy" album we get the bludgeoning, tension-loaded "you Again" and the decidedly mellower, melancholy drone of "Deb's Night Out". And for those obsessed with the "Churn" album? Well we ufortunately get nought (again).

          La La Land is a huge as ever, and tn it's into the laid-back groove of "Yr' Head is A Rock" before they offer a snatch of Accadaccas "Dirty Deeds". The weighty melody of "Gimme Gimme" builds to a monstrous finale and they're gone. Another passionate, energised performance from Shihad in front of a substancial crowd but somehow their set (whole night really) still felt flat, mainly due to a lack of this all important thing they call atmosphere, plus a few problems with the PA (shit happens). Just can't help but compare it to the more intimate intensity of their packed out show at the Globe in March, a gig that really left a lasting impression.