Unadulterated Rock With Added Laughs
It’s hard to tell whether Aussies Airbourne are actually taking themselves seriously or not. A cross between AC/DC and Spinal Tap, they appear to be simply an unashamedly no nonsense rock band who want to out shred everyone and wail till their vocal chords explode, and quite frankly why the hell not?
There’s no over pretentious entrance from Airbourne, literally running on stage before their setlists are even taped down, the Australian quartet lunged into a seething rendition of ‘Stand Up For Rock N Roll’, a song that sums them up so perfectly that it should be their anthem. Stripped to the waist, wiry frontman Joel O’Keefe screeches out lyrics at break neck speed before talking to crowd, and with no alteration to his tone or speed, most of his responses are met with a bewildered silence before he launches into the next track. Dedicating the next track to all the beautiful girls in black, O’Keefe leads his band into the aptly titled ‘Girls In Black’, continually moving around the stage whilst gurning manically at the crowd, O’Keefe is the demented clone of Angus Young, pausing here and there to breakout some synchronised head banging with fellow guitarist and bass player.
Retrieving an Australian flag from the crowd O’Keefe proceeds to climb the lighting tower, reaching the top to give the flag pride of place. This in itself is a delight for the crowd but O’Keefe doesn’t seem to want to come down, instead he clings to the metal work and proceeds to play a solo on the guitar he has refused to be parted from. Finally back on the stage the pace is astonishingly upped as the band wisely save their biggest hits to date, ‘Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast’ and ‘Runnin’ Wild’ to the end, causing the crowd to erupt with enthusiasm that brings the raging set to a fitting climax.
With music that is brutally unadulterated rock in its purest form, peppered with an insanely adhering frontman and genuine laugh out loud entertainment, Airbourne are like no other band and when they are as much fun as this, why would you want them any other way?