“That was a song about teenage rebellion”, deadpans Tex Perkins, after he and the rest of The Ape have just punched their way through a rocking version of “Don’t Need Nuthin’” – “that I wrote when I was forty-three!”
That may well sum up the ethos behind The Ape. Take Tex, a man who needs no introduction, plus a Raul Sanchez (Magic Dirt), Gus Agars (The Gin Club) and Pat Bourke (Dallas Crane), and you have a stellar lineup of Aussie musicians who, despite their combined musical heavyweight, just want to have a real’ good time.
The gang of four have called in a favour and enlisted The Drones stickman Mike Noga to perform support duties. He warms up the Ding Dong Lounge bandroom with some acoustic numbers including “All My Friends Are Alcoholics” and “Down Like JFK”.
Like The Ape, Noga’s also not averse to having a laugh, particularly when he pauses the sombre “M’Belle” to rag on a middle-aged man intent on taking peculiar close-ups of him with his iPhone.
When The Ape materialise, their nonchalance is evident in the unassuming way they take the stage and launch straight into the swaggering, innuendo-laden “Man On A Mission”. The self-assured first track from their recent debut LP, it’s a song that unleashes Tex at his libidinous best, brilliantly punctuated by staccato guitar riffs.
From chopping riffs the band move seamlessly into the coolly detached “Crawl Back”. Tex struts and stomps wide-legged, and though the lyrics may lament, “I still crawl back/for your mistreatment,” the attitude of the slinking drums and falsetto lyrics is decidedly too-cool-too-care.
This casual insouciance is underscored throughout the set by the powerful playing of Raul Sanchez. He wields the guitar with flair, rolling out riffs, licks, and feedback-coated solos that flesh out The Ape’s stronger songs and prop up the weaker ones.
And there are weaker ones – there’s the 70s soft rock interlude midway through the set, that sees Pat Bourke take to the keyboard, the vocal harmonies multiply and the cheesiness factor hit the roof.
There are rough diamonds hidden within these songs – “All Of Us” is set alight by Sanchez’s thick, raw solo, and Tex delivers “Gonna Make You Love Me” in a whiskey-soaked voice that sounds even better with the accumulation of years – but the songs teeter uncomfortably on the line between silliness and self-consciousness.
Surprisingly, the covers are also where the band fall slightly flat. There’s a neat, bluesy nod to The Rolling Stones with “No Expectations”, but the most eventful moment during the covers section of the evening is when Tex slips in a wet patch and nearly skids sideways off the stage.
However, The Ape give good rock. “All The Same” opens with a murky, distorted riff that could have been pinched straight from Tame Impala’s latest. The band crank up the decibels, gathering in intensity like a rolling thundercloud.
“Sno Fun” is a gritty romp, with Tex playing screeching lead guitar, and “Monkey In The Kitchen” is a distorted psychedelic jam driven by an electrifying solo from Sanchez, and Gus Agars’ weighty drumming.
When The Ape get it right, they get it right – like when they rip through a threatening version of “Can’t Feel A Thing” towards the end of the set – but when they push the fine line of parody too far, not everyone gets the joke.
No matter though; a defiant middle-finger salute from Tex during the last song of the night leaves no doubt that these burly monkeys are just teenage rebels at heart.
