It’s certainly been a while but Rock N’ Roll outlaws, Rose Tattoo who just recently announced their 20018 Blood Brothers tour, are back in town for the first time in over eight years.It’s a tour that will take in the East Coast later in the year before heading to Europe and taking in both ‘Hellfest’ and ‘Sweden Rock’ and to think it all came about as a result of an invite last year to play the ‘Bang Your Head Festival’ in Germany.
Tonight Rose Tattoo’s assault comprises the legendary bass player Mark Evans of AC/DC fame, iconic guitarist Bob Spencer of The Angels and The Skyhooks, Dai Pritchard on slide and of course the quintessential front-man, the indomitable Angry Anderson. Sadly drummer John ‘Watto’ Watson of Australian Crawl, was indisposed tonight but his spot is ably filled by Pete Heckenberg. All in all it’s one helluva unit and one that allows the music to do the talking.
Support tonight comes from local heroes Ragdoll and Legs Electric, both bands that will be more than familiar with regular Perth gig-goers and both bands more than capable of taking the next step. Both have class, presence and the songs to take them there and both sport vocalists that put them right in the A-League.
An appreciative crowd gives them some great encouragement but in reality we are all here for the music of the band that have always been just a notch above their more famous Albert Records cousins- AC/DC.
Now if you haven’t seen Rose Tattoo then just think for a minute of all the bands that name-check them as influences – it’s a veritable who’s who of the biggest Rock bands on the planet that have grown up inspired and influenced by this band of brothers, and whilst the line-up may have changed more than most its the songs that matter and their place in Australian Rock and Roll history.
Rose Tattoo to me have always been one of the my most pivotal bands – hard rockers who took the blues and a working class ethic and produced ‘real’ music that resonated the pain, the grind of day to day life. Essentially it’s heavy blues, leaning on the slide guitar with some bold and brash lyrics.
A rose Tattoo show is simply timeless, and 40 years on the songs still sound as elemental and essential as ever. Tonight its a run through the classics and they’re all there: from the anthems ‘Bad By For Love’ and ‘We Can’t Be Beaten’ through the swaggering ‘One of the Boys’ to the final frenzy of ‘Nice Boys’ the song that the young Guns ‘n’ Roses covered.
Sure AC/DC are going around the world playing to the masses but to many of us in Australia Rose Tattoo and Angry Anderson as just as iconic. If you get a chance to catch them this year either at home or in Europe then grasp that chance, you don’t often get a chance to see a band that’s had a huge hand in shaping the rock music of the last 40 years.
It says in the press release for the tour “The Blood Brothers 2018 Tour guarantees to deliver unadulterated, adrenaline-fueled, dirty Aussie rock at its’ finest!” Don’t you just love understatements?
