Here's my review, also found on FasterLouder...
Can’t keep a good thing down, they say. Well, that’s certainly what The Living End fan base think. The trio – one of the country’s most enduring rock outfits – made their return from a brief hiatus this year to release their sixth studio album. And with that came the best thing about the Living End: a tour.
The night’s sold out performance held the hometown cards, with both supports being local rock and rollers. The first was Hunting Grounds, who squawked their way onto stage via their Unearthed High winning Blackout. The song that won the Ballarat boys some attention a couple of years back was by no means an indication of their sound overall, and they quickly slid back and forth into more melodic (but possibly less interesting) sounds. Amongst the sounds of grungy rock and self proclaimed “pussy metal” (for any metal fans that might have realised it was not in fact metal at all), the six lads put on a pretty cool set – sharing instruments and dismantling their drum kit mid song so that three of them could simultaneously have a go.
Post frantic and, at times, savage sounds of Hunting Grounds, the tight retro rock and roll of King Cannons seemed a little strange, despite both bands actually being right for the bill. The first thing to strike about King Cannons was that they weren’t kids like the band before, and they certainly weren’t awkward about being on stage. Classic rock and roll infused with reggae and soul, King Cannons took to the stage like headliners: “I know we’re the support band here but we wanna get this place moving”. They got a pretty good response, too, with plenty clapping along and stomping their feet to the dancehall numbers – how could they not with all that cow bell and bongos.
The Living End seem to have a knack for continually drawing new fans, whilst many of the older ones take turns to sit gigs out. This seemed evident by the time they came on, with The Palace – not nearly as large as Festy Hall or Hisense Arena that they’ve played previously – hosting what looked like a balanced mix of Living End returners and first timers. If the set was anything to go by, the band knew there were plenty of newbies; playing a fair divide between The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating tracks and older numbers, albeit only singles.
A trio of new songs were first out of the gates: In The Morning, Heatwave, and Machine Gun, but it took until the third for the crowd to respond like a typical Living End crowd. A weighty intro provided an invitation for those on the floor to push forward, but even then the mosh of sorts was quite reserved – no one really knowing yet how to respond to these new additions. It didn’t take too long to resolve the situation, with Second Solution busting out the fist pumps and bogan chants and giving The Living End their warm welcome home.
Familiarity played a big part in set from there on in, with the usual double bass acrobatics from Scott Owen, and Chris Cheney’s easy cracks at Sydney. The big hits like Roll On and Prisoner of Society unsurprisingly gained the biggest response, but weren’t necessarily the best parts of the set.
Certainly from a more interesting, variety perspective, the acoustic lead-in to Nothing Lasts Forever stood out, Cheney’s vocals finally more prominent than his guitar riffs or the bellowing mess of voices coming from the crowd. The eager reception for new singles like Song For The Lonely and The Ending Is Just The Beginning Repeating must have been encouraging for the trio, too – something of an indication that a band who has released both excellent and crappy records in their time are currently on the money.
TLE bowed out with their staple encore performance of West End Riot, which you could say is annoying predictable, except for the fact it still garners the same mad reaction every time it’s played. But while it isn’t exactly strange for TLE to finish with their most popular track every gig, it is kind of odd that, six albums down the line, their headline shows aren’t extending in length – the band cut off at the 75 minute mark, with a decent sized back catalogue left unplayed.
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