When Australians aren’t chugging on a bong, surfing or not winning The Melbourne Cup or meat raffles, they can be seen ‘getting their goats up’ standing in a beer sodden, vomit ridden pub worshipping the amateur rock outfit deemed cheap enough to appear on that particular night. There’s no doubt about it, Aussies love a good pub rock band (the word ‘good’ there is used simply to refer to a band who can recreate at least one AC/DC song), the louder the better – as long as they play all ‘the hits’ that’s all that matters and if they happen to cross over and throw in the occasional Crowded House tune, ripper! This phenomenon isn’t just limited to Australia of course, the Brits, yanks and who can leave out the Spanish and Germans, all love a good air guitar session, but it’s the passion and the vigour with which the Aussie will throw him/herself onto the ‘dance floor’ (an area with no tables and sticky carpet or treacherous slippy wood) that sets them apart from other Nations (I’m sure the Germans are passionate about the Hoff but..).
Tribute bands adorn most RSL clubs around the Country. If you like AC/DC, Midnight Oil, or INXS you can be sure to find some desperate folks donning wigs and stepping on the effects pedals, emulating their heroes to (usually) great applause. Tribute bands are now among only a handful of bands on ‘the circuit’ mainly due to changes to entertainment laws preventing many venues from hosting music acts nowadays. Back in the day, it was highly feasible to play 9 nights a week for a gram of speed and a case of VB and actually get ‘noticed’, such was the small population and the huge abundance of venues (mainly on the East Coast). Hell, you may even make it international if you hone your skills and fine tune your style to suit the venue – like the aforementioned INXS, AC/DC, Midnight Oil, or just be huge in the homeland, like Cold Chisel, The Angels and Hunters and Collectors. Nowadays, most people have to make do with karaoke or just pokies (slot machines) which are much more profitable and are less noisy (for those locals who complained about the din from bands, even though the venues were there long before they moved into their converted loft warehouses).
There are of course, countless acts out there that have played ‘the circuit’ for years and never achieved anything more than 3rd prize at the local talent contest, but it doesn’t matter to them, or the punters in the pub. It’s raw, live, passionate and sometimes quite good, as long as they stay away from Bryan Adams covers and sax solos! Having said that, imagine an all sax outfit called Saxual Assault, supported by a trombone ensemble called Deep Vein Trombosis! I’d pay to see them!
How long will it be until another band cuts its teeth in one of these venues and be crowned ‘Kings of the sticky carpet’ like Screaming Jets were? More live music please!