Takin' A Ride

Reporting from Melbourne AUSTRALIA of all places! Always wanted to visit Australia, considering that they have some of the best music to ever be made, from any country. I’d even go as far to say that if the only music that ever existed came out of Australia, I would be ok with that.

We hadn’t been in Melbourne 12 hours and my wife Amy found a rock ‘n roll show she highly suggested we go see. “Hey! Mach Pelican is playing tonight near us! They’re very Ramonesy…”, so dressed in the only clothes we had (because our luggage didn’t make our flight that came in that morning), and went to the Evelyn Hotel (“hotel” in Aussie means “club”, I think) to check out some rock ‘n roll in another country for the first time.

One thing I learned about Melbourne after being here not even 12 hours, was that it’s a very diverse city. All sorts of nationalities here, all working together and doing their thing. And it’s no different for music. This was a very diverse lineup of bands. First up was Human Toys from France, then Los Chicos from Spain, and then Mach Pelican from Australia via Japan. And everyone here, bands and fans, were here to celebrate rock ‘n roll.

Human Toys consisted of a girl and guy duo. Jon Von on guitar and Poupée Mecanik on vocals AND a theremin. It wasn’t until the end of the set that I realized that there was no drummer, yet there were drums! So there were a lot of samples, I guess, but you wouldn’t really know it. She even lit the theremin on fire during one of the last songs! Pretty cool. They had a song called “Plate In My Head” and I asked Poupee about it. It had to be because of the Didjits song or Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (my favorite movie of all time besides anything Star Wars), and it turned out to be because of the Didjits. Now looking it up, it was an actual cover of the song from the Didjits! But they did it so different and it’s been like 30 years since I heard it, I didn’t catch that while they were playing it. I should’ve taped the conversation, because she was telling me about the band and the songs. They’re actually a very political band, and songs like “Human Zoo” and even “Plate In My Head” have whole political meanings. Their bandcamp describes them as garage punk somewhere between the Ramones and the Avengers, and that’s just about the best description that could be made.

Then Los Chicos came on and TOTALLY ROCKED! WOW! Full on blazing rock ‘n roll power! They were just so much FUN! One of the coolest things about them, and I wouldn’t call it a “gimmick”, though other people could easily say it, was that during the solos, they would all bunch up together in front of the stage and completely rock out. Like for every single song! This was amazing and a great visual. The songs were great too, showing their sense of humor and desire to have fun. Songs like “We Sound Amazing But Look Like Shit”. They reminded me a little of Eddie & The Hot Rods. Full on powered rock. The singer made a big speech about loving Melbourne and not wanting to leave. Like “Compared to this, Madrid is like Mordor.”, then went on to say that “leaving Melbourne is like the orcs trying to take the Ring, but we are like hobbits, and we still have The Ring. THE RING OF ROCK ‘N ROLL!”

They were so much fun, they even had an impromptu conga line going around the club after things were letting out. I would’ve joined in, but didn’t want to hurt myself 12 hours into our Aussie adventure, lol. They got a new record out called “Never Is Too Much”, produced by Mike Mariconda whose got a lot of good production credits including the Cosmic Psychos and was actually in the Raunch Hands and Devil Dogs! Sounds great! I really want to see these guys again and guess what? I CAN! They’re in Melbourne all week and are playing the River Rocks festival on Saturday with Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders, so I’m definitely there! Not really knowing the band and their music, I was out of place for some of the jumping around and the bunching up together in front of the stage, but I will definitely try to do a better job on pictures this Saturday, if not sooner!

Mach Pelican closed the night off. Full on pop punk trio. And when I’m saying “pop punk” I don’t mean Green Day and Blink 182, but like the Queers and Screeching Weasel. And I’d say more like Screeching Weasel than anything else, which is a huge compliment in my book! They did a bunch of covers too including “Ursula Finally Has Tits” from the Queers, “Gigantor” from the Dickies, and more. Fun band! It was the drummer’s birthday recently and they had him tell his age. He wouldn’t, but when prompted to in Japanese, he said it. And my wife Amy, who’s learning Japanese said he’s 49! So you got the scoop here on “Takin’ A Ride”!