It’s Friday night! After a week of torrential rain & the inevitable resultant subsequent collapse of Sydney’s train system, the return of D-A-D promised a welcome respite from the drudgery of the oncoming winter.
The Dark Clouds provide a raucous entrée to tonight’s Main Course, the boys from Wollongong look like a demolition crew, and they behave the same way, softening up the Manning before the Danish headliners can come in & do their thing.
I get some serious Dictators vibes, among the Ramones & Birdman influences, while singer theDean comes across like a “sasquatch Angry Anderson”.
There’s an array of seriously catchy tunes in the Clouds collective tool belts, most notably Rock n Roll Queen (with apologies to Mott the Hoople) and their paean to Miley Cyrus., which was no doubt drunkenly hollered all the way home by the bands faithful fan club on the night bus back to Port Kembla last night. “I hope your Mama’s proud of you!!!”
Two and a half years since their last visit, D-A-D return to the Manning Bar on their Greatest Hits tour. After a crowd-pleasing run back in November ’22, it was great to see Copenhagen’s Finest back so soon!
The band opens with the killer combination of Jihad followed by Girl Nation, the big crowd with a large Danish contingent (that certainly weren’t as evident last time out) are dancing, chanting & singing happily, waving scarves & flags like it’s a home game for the touring side.
We get new tune & title track from the new album Speed of Darkness, then reconstructed. By now, bassist Stig has climbed to his familiar perch atop the drum kit, toting his invisible Perspex bass. Soft Dogs & an intense Grow or Pay take the pace down a notch before the peculiar Stig showcase of Riding with Sioux. Those playing “Bass watch” only get 2 tonight, the invisible Perspex one with built-in fairy lights, and the Red Baron / Iron Cross one (it’s a Mott the Hoople kinda night apparently).
New song Keep that Mother Down is an absolute banger that shows that this band is nowhere NEAR out of steam yet! It has a riff that sounds like an inverted, inside-out version of Crazy Train. Something Good from the fabulous Everything Glows record is a welcome addition, before we get another KO combination of Point of View & a mighty Rim of Hell. I said it last time, and I’ll say It again: “D-A-D are one of the VERY few bands who have the twinkle in the eye, the tongue in the cheek, the snarl, the sneer, the snigger & and the sledgehammer punch of old AC/DC”.
Everything Glows gives way to the showcase for Drummer Laust Sonne with some Speed Metal Drum breaks. “If you give Laust love, he will do anything; if you leave him out of sight, he’ll cause nothing but trouble” Tonight, he sets the kit alight to the traditional cries of “Come on Laust, Kill those Drums” before Bad Craziness brings things to a crashing close.
The inevitable encore brings another new tune, God Prays to Man before the final salvo of Sleeping My Day Away, Laugh & a Half, and the customary melancholy closer Its After Dark.
It was a long time between visits for D-A-D, and then a relatively short gap between the last 2, so hopefully we get another visit on the next go round.
Photos by Adam Sivewright | Review by Biggs
D-A-D
The Dark Clouds
