Kicking off the night are locals Bitter Sweet Kicks. Fresh off a searing Cherry Rock set, they show there is still plenty left in the tank and give our headliner a run for his money in the crazy stage presence stakes. While the room is quiet, a lone head-banger front of stage shows what everyone else is thinking. Lead singer Jack Davies further proving why he is one of the best front men going around as he lurches and flails around the stage, as guitarist Brendan Charlie tests out the security barricade. Their set culminates with Davies running through the crowd, wrapping his microphone wire around a punter and tackling him to the ground, resulting in some sort of rock n’ roll stacks on. They play dirty, loud, primal and they are truly unmissable.
Walking back inside after a band changeover beer, the noise of a scratchy backing tape causes the ears to prick up and not in a good way. Aleister X paces around the stage in a boxing gown. He raps/yells indecipherably over poorly recorded hip hop/trance beats. A patron nearby asks the question many appear to be posing to themselves, ‘is this a joke?’ Like losing your virginity, it is uncomfortable, at times painful and the whole time you just want it to be over. The sound quality is bad; the delivery is terrible and the whole set plays like some awful Mighty Boosh outtake, with perhaps something lost in translation between his recorded work and his live show. He is possibly one of the worst support acts of all time, posing more questions than answers. Finally, he finishes up and the tension builds for the long-awaited king of partying to take the stage.
Air raid sirens begin to wail, the punters growing more excited by the second, chanting “party, party, party”. The curtains squeak open and like a bolt of white lightning Andrew WK explodes into his set. Dressed head to toe in white and throwing his long hair maniacally around he asks “are you ready to have fun tonight? Are you ready to party tonight?” As expected, this is met with the sound of two hundred or so people losing their shit. Ramming the message home from the first song, “It’s Time To Party”, AWK presides over the crowd the way a priest would his congregation, doling out high fives instead of communion wafers.
Playing without his band, he strikes a lonesome figure on the large stage, a fact that is not lost on him. “This stage is awful big for one person, I need some dancers.” Before he can even finish the sentence, the stage is flooded with eager fans (this reviewer included). Pure mayhem follows: beer is sprayed, speakers are knocked over and at one point the power supply to the keyboard is accidentally pulled out. One would think that this chaotic scene would cause security to yank people heavy handedly off-stage but as AWK keeps reminding us, “this is a party, not a concert.” As such, all on-stage are allowed to remain.
The respect bordering on worship that his fans have for him is staggering and actually pretty sweet. Heavy hitter tunes “We Want Fun” and “Party Hard” cause mass hysteria and the mosh churns with beer, body parts and sweat. His messages of ‘party hard, love each other and have fun’ while simple, resonate loudly. Andrew WK is positivity personified and it is impossible to leave one of his gigs without a stupid grin on your face to keep you company the whole ride home.
– Madison Thomas
