The internet was aglow Tuesday afternoon as Black Lips fans took to Twitter and Tumblr professing their excitement for the band’s return to Australia. The band owe fan loyalty to their own early adoption of social media, starting early on MySpace and replying to the odd message, as well as interacting with fans through multiple channels, like their tour phone.
Being affiliated with Vice Records didn’t hurt either as many who came of age around 2006 heard about them for the first time on mix cd’s and ‘bands to watch’ lists. As with any band who captures your attention at a young age, you feel ownership over them somehow; lyrics have personal meaning, and their return to your hometown is something like a religious holiday.
All that being said, why the fervour for four guys from Atlanta who play rock music? There’s a zillion bands these days, many who have tried to emulate the band’s flower punk sound. Perhaps the sweat in the crowd could be captured as evidence, but to give a shout out to the hard working punk rockers it has to be said that they just do it well and that’s all there is to know.
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First support of the night was Steve Miller Band (not that Steve Miller so try ‘SMB’ to find them on Facebook). For those who haven’t caught the three-piece before, think of the feeling of finding some rare vintage piece at Savers (that has a few unnoticeable stains on it) and you’ll get some idea of this gold nugget of a group.
Playing psychedelic rock and surf covers as well as originals from male member Handsome Steve, the band played unaware of the crowd, joking with each other and taking a few tries getting songs started. The audience was so entranced by the group (sparkly pants, leopard unitard and ripped pants to blame) that the room filled up unnoticed before Frowning Clouds came on stage.
True fans took their place in the best position for a Black Lips show: right up front and ready to fight the moshers to stay there. When the band emerged on stage the crowd surged in attempt to get both dance space and breathing room to no avail, the opening bars of ‘Sea of Blasphemy’ signalling that the bell tolled for thee.
Those that caught the group at this past Falls Festival will have noticed that guitarist Jack Hines has replaced Ian Saint Pe on tour. Hines quickly proved himself a worthy replacement for Saint Pe (as well as an entertaining guitarist) wisecracking like a regular.
The band also didn’t play any new songs at the festival, and instead paid out tracks from Underneath the Rainbow at the sideshow. ‘Boys in the Wood’ has a more dramatic build up to the chorus live than on the new album and the band’s natural showmanship added an evanglical hysteria to the fans excitement to hear all the new stuff.
Old favourite ‘Oh Katrina’ was met with the usual crowd surfing, but ‘Dirty Hands’ marginally got the most noticeable response from the audience, who sang along like one big Peanut Gang.
A nice surprise came when the band played ‘Aint No Deal’ from their first album, one that they haven’t played in recent tours (guys admit it, you read our guide right?), and upon hearing ‘Raw Meat’ again live it was realised that the track is a food fight captured in song.
Too soon the band announced they had ‘literally’ three songs left, which was enough time to prepare for every troublemaker’s anthem ‘Bad Kids’ (“BAD KIDS, AIN’T NO COLLEGE GRAD KIDS, LIVING LIFE OUT ON THE SKIDS, KIDS LIKE YOU AND ME!”).
The band then showed their southern roots with the Almighty Defenders cover of ‘Bow Down and Die’ and closing on Clarence Stacy and Group’s ‘Jack the Ripper’ with singer and guitarist Jared Swilley cooing goodbye’s to the audience like a 1960s children’s TV host.
Check out the full photo gallery from the show here.
