The Regular John's, Mint Chicks, The Bronx - HiFi Club, Melbourne

The life of support acts to large touring artists is a tough one, playing early to half empty rooms for little money to people who are largely indifferent to your efforts and sadly tonight is no exception as a multitude of people seem happy to pay $30 to only watch one band. The Regular Johns kick off proceedings with a dangerous name for any rock band, as despite their high energy stage show, faultless playing and excellent stage presence, musically they are sadly no more than a fairly regular rock band. The Mint Chicks are up next, a band I’ve been wanting to see for a long time since they became a regular part of my DJ set in the UK and I hate to say, I was a little disappointed. Personally I get the feeling that the band’s sound was set up for The Bronx as their usual clear punchy sound (on record) was just a big mushy mess with no clarity or distinction. Despite this, Kody, the band’s singer is one the most acrobatic front men I’ve ever witnessed (second to the British Institution that is John Ottway!), flinging himself about left, right and centre, back flips and belly flops, sadly though the sound doesn’t do the energy any justice and I’m left a little under whelmed. The Bronx on the other hand live up to all the hype my uber-fan companion gave them, my initial thought was that I’d be bored after 20 minutes of relentless, incessant hardcore, far from it, I was transfixed from start to finish. From the lead guitarist playing despite a shattered pelvis, the tank-like bass player and the shear passion and energy of singer Matt Caughthran as he crowd surfed around the venue whilst still ‘singing’ on full throttle and remaining vaguely in tune. Aside from the music the band love the crowd, flattering Melbourne and Australia, encoring with a cover of The Victims’ song, ‘Television Addict’. The Bronx rock, love what they do, love the crowd and the crowd love them, what more could you want?

Published in www.rockus.com.au