Record crowd at The Basement – Friday 15th of February 2008
Blacklist
Marc Robertson
System Addict
Dogact
Hollow Point
What started out sounding like just another gig at the Basement, ended up being possibly the biggest and best gigs that the Basement has seen. Certainly a record number of payers according to my sources.
The event was organised by ‘Shaggs’ (ex-Barrel Of Monkeys drummer) in celebration of his birthday.
The night kicked off with Blacklist taking to the stage with some kick arse rock and roll. This was apparently the boys first gig and despite some minor hiccups the band powered through their set, much to the delight of the crowd. The highlight for me was the singers extraordinary vocal ability and the main guitarist’s energy and willingness to entertain. Everyone seems to rave about Tonk these days, but I say move over Tonk, Blacklist have arrived!
Next up was Marc Robertson (ex-singer of Barrel Of Monkeys). Armed with just his voice and a keyboard, Marc tried his best to entertain the crowd, but succeeded only in sending most people outside to give their ears a rest. Or maybe they were still blown away by the opening act……..Despite obviously having a talented voice, Marc was ill-suited to the night of great music that was unfolding. Please trade in the solo gig and bring back Barrel Of Monkeys!
After what seemed like an eternity for the bands to change over, System Addict finally arrived. The 4 piece metal outfit with the biggest drum kit in Australia came on stage to a smallish crowd to begin with and had to work hard to get the people back up the front after the previous act. With some catchy songs and some sketchy vocals, System Addict did their best to entertain with some great tunes and tight music. Credit must be given to their bass player who certainly knows what to do and how to do it. He was simply outstanding………the other 3 were pretty good too.
Dogact were up next. This band had some great tunes, and from what I could see, great potential, but they seemed to not quite hit the mark tonight. Despite the best efforts from the singer and bass player to rock out and work the stage, and the precision and talent of the two guitarists, the 4 up the front seemed to be let down quite badly by the drummer’s inability to keep a steady beat and pay attention to the other band members when they were yelling at him to shut up and start the next song. Alcohol before playing = bad news if you’re a drummer. Overall though, this was a really good set of well written rock songs which most of the crowd seemed to enjoy, but just performed a bit below par.
To finish off the night, Hollow Point took to the stage. The guy that I was standing next to compared them to “a poor man’s Spoil”, but these boys were much better than that. They had moments of brilliance, which was unfortunately tainted by moments of madness. They even had a vocal effects box which helped to cover up the lack of vocal ability. Musically these guys were pretty darn good, and they played an overall entertaining set to a few drunk patrons who seemed to quite enjoy themselves. I tried to talk to them after their set but was ignored in a Axl Rose kinda brush off. Loose the ego’s and you guys could go a long way.
Overall, I’d have to say that this was one of the best nights of sex, drugs & rock and roll that I’ve been out to in a long while. The Basement staff need to be commended on their efforts for the night as they were completely run off their feet, but did a great job in keeping everyone happy and well liquefied! Well done to “Shaggs”, all the bands that played and everyone that came out and had themselves a kick-arse night!!! Loved it!
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