Thursday night saw Melbourne’s rock faithful turn out to see a 3 band bill headed by Canada’s powerhouse trio Danko Jones.
Opening the evening was local band The Credits, their brief set opened with the single Kill Pop Radio and continued to impress with some cool rockers like Earthshaker, Silver Screens and California Reptile. Following their progress for some time it’s clear they have honed their stage craft making them a much more entertaining live prospect and definately a band to keep an eye on in the future.
Next up was The Vendettas who I hadn’t seen before but also quickly impressed – opening with Face To Face they offered a more melodic point of difference to the openers. The excellent new single Slinging Mud was a highlight as was closer Rats On The Wheel rounding out the set in style.
Without any delay Danko Jones hit the boards and ripped straight into I Gotta Rock which is just what they did for the next 90 minutes. Fists Up High was a musical call to arms with the crowd indeed raising their fists to this anthemic rocker.
The Twisting Knife was a personal highlight before Danko addressed the crowd for the first time. A mixture of intensity, sarcasm and killer humour had the crowd hanging on his every word as he proceeded to tell anyone expecting a show without mistakes or the odd bum notes that they had come to the wrong place and that rock n roll wasn’t about being 10/10 but more like 6/10 and tonight we should only expect 4/10!!
I’m In A Band was next quickly followed by First Date and Invisible – all sounding a perfect 4/10 to me! Early favorite Code Of The Road followed and went down a storm. I Think Bad Thoughts, Had Enough and We’re Crazy offered additional highlights. Burn In Hell, Dance Dance Dance and Legs were amongst the other tracks that rounded out the 21 song setlist of songs that according to Danko himself all sound the same which was his response to a fan request for a more obscure deep cut – “hey just pretend this song is your deep cut – hell they all sound the same anyway!”
They finished off the main set with My Little RNR before returning for 2 well deserved encores in Sugar Chocolate and a storming rendition of crowd pleaser Rock Shit Hot.
A great night of high energy rock n roll was had by all in attendance and a big shout out to Silverback Touring for continuing to bring out some killer bands to our shores. Miss this band when they hit your city amd you’ll forever be as danko himself would say full Of regret!
PHOTO GALLERY
Photos by Simone Tyrrell at Live Music Photography
