It’s a baking 38-degree Sunday Afternoon when we descend upon Darlinghurst’s fabled Burdekin Hotel. The mid-afternoon Drag show has just finished, and next on the menu is an assortment of loud, Dirty Rock n’ Roll bands…. Well, obviously!
Indeed, Stone Rising has “Dirty Australian Rock” proudly plastered across the t-shirts on sale at the merch stand, and ‘Like a 45’, ‘Waco City Blues’ & ‘Hell Yeah’ abundantly back up the claim. Early on, the songs, are short, sharp punches to the face, later on the band stretch out a bit & flex their groove chops, getting the crowd well in the mood for what’s to come. The Singer at one point proclaims “What’s in a name?! We’ll just play some loud music!” there’s another t-shirt right there…That’s all you need!
Nobody’s in any doubt when Nobody’s Fool are on … with towering Singer Milosz resplendent all in white, howling at the moon! The Chugging riffs & hook–laden choruses have you thinking you had tripped back to 1987. ‘So Wrong’ has everything dialled up to 11, so we hit the road to Hollywood via Canterbury road with a girl named Cherie, but then ‘Hell Hath no fury like a woman scorned’, so its just as well we’re here for a good time, not a long time. The band are all as colourful as the characters in the songs, so it’s certainly a memorable ride.
I have fond memories of the video for Heaven’s version of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” being a staple on Rage late at night throughout my late high-school years, in fact, I still have the 12-inch single somewhere in my record collection, so I was certainly keen to catch the reformed band when the opportunity arose.
Given that Burdekin’s upstairs room is comfortably filled, plenty of others have the same idea, and they’re certainly rewarded for braving the heat this scorching Sunday afternoon.
Kicking off with ‘Storm’, its obvious that Heaven is a mightily tougher proposition than their records would indicate. The older songs are given a thorough beating and, stripped of the keyboard wash from the 80’s production, they kick like a mule on a diet of rum & harbaneros.
Laurie Marlow & John Haese along with legendary drummer Mick O’Shea lay a rock solid foundation while New Singer Peter Millward & guitarist Steve Down go about adding the flash.
‘Suck City’ & ‘Rock School’ highlights, and a couple of new tunes in the middle show plenty of promise for the future while the closing salvo of ‘In the Beginning’ & ‘Where angels fear to tread’ are as comfortable as your favourite old pair of jeans.
I’d love to see these guys in front of a bigger crowd, they’d make some noise.
Photos by Adam Sivewright | Review by Biggs
Heaven:
Nobody’s Fool & Stone Rising:
